Clik here to view.
SoCraTes 2018
I’d been hearing great things about the International Conference for Software Craft and Testing for years. Last year, I narrowly missed it. This past weekend, I finally made it to the 8th SoCraTes....
View ArticleMunich Software Craft August 2018: Strangle Your Legacy Code
On Thursday, August 30 in Munich, I attended Munich Software Craft and presented Strangle Your Legacy Code. We split into several mobs to practice adding features to an old SMTP server without...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Coding Tour Stop #4: codecentric
[Update: Thorsten wrote a few words about our week together. They’re quite nice.]The final week of my coding tour came right on the heels of SoCraTes. On Sunday evening I went straight from Soltau to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Coding Tour Summer 2018: Conclusion
After my fourth and final tour stop, we decamped to Mallorca for a week. With no upcoming workshops to polish and no upcoming plans to finalize, the laptop stayed home. Just each other, a variety of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
NYC Lean/Kanban + CTO School: Mob Programming Workshop
On Thursday, October 25 in Manhattan, I presented a Mob Programming Workshop at the first ever joint meetup of CTO School and NYC Lean/Kanban.Abstract:Mob Programming brings the whole team together to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Brooklyn November 2018: Global Day of Coderetreat
Yesterday I co-facilitated the Brooklyn instance of Global Day of Coderetreat. Last year, having just moved back to New York, I was disappointed we didn’t have a GDCR instance going on around here....
View Article2018Q4 qmail updates in pkgsrc
Happy 2019! Another three months, another stable branch for pkgsrc, the practical cross-platform Unix package manager. I’ve shipped quite a few improvements for qmail users in our 2018Q4 release. In...
View ArticleDevOpsDays NYC: Run Your @wn Email Server!
In late January, I was at DevOpsDays NYC in midtown Manhattan to present Run Your @wn Email Server!My abstract:When we’re responsible for production, it can be hard to find room to learn. That’s why I...
View ArticleNY XP & Agile February 2019: Strangle Your Legacy Code
On Thursday, February 21, I attended New York XP & Agile and presented Strangle Your Legacy Code. As a mob, we practiced adding features to an old SMTP server without modifying its...
View ArticleNYCBUG: Maintaining qmail in 2019
On Wednesday, March 6, I attended New York City BSD User Group and presented Maintaining qmail in 2019. This one pairs nicely with my recent DevOpsDays Ignite talk about why and how to Run Your @wn...
View ArticleTraining: Personal Kanban
Habits can changeI have a habit I like very much: incorporating some professional training every year. Last year my needs led me to go on a coding tour.I also have habits I don’t like very much,...
View ArticleSmartBear April 2019: Mob Programming Explained
On Thursday, April 11, I presented a webinar with SmartBear called Mob Programming Explained. The abstract:Software development is complex. It’s knowledge work. How often does one developer know...
View ArticleClik here to view.
deliver:Agile 2019: Strangle Your Legacy Code
I attended deliver:Agile in Nashville and co-facilitated a session called Strangle Your Legacy Code with Markus Silpala. As a group, we practiced adding features to an old SMTP server without modifying...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Big Apple Scrum Day 2019: Two Midwesterners Politely Invite You To Explore...
On Friday, May 10, I attended Big Apple Scrum Day, was part of its Coaches Clinic, and co-facilitated a session called Two Midwesterners Politely Invite You To Explore Coding with Faye Thompson.Here’s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
NYC Large Scale Scrum May 2019
On Thursday, May 16, NYC Large Scale Scrum hosted a meetup with LeSS co-creator Craig Larman. The event was held at Morgan Stanley — where I learned Extreme Programming and got my first taste of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Announcing notqmail
Running my own email server has its challenges. Chief among them: my favorite mail-server software hasn’t been updated since I started using it in 1998.The qmail logoOkay, that’s not entirely true....
View ArticleMedtner: Hymn, Op. 54 No. 7
Schmonzcast #21: To celebrate my parents’ 50th anniversary, and to honor their having shipped me the baby grand I grew up playing, I chose this Medtner piece. The last time I’d prepared a piece under...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Manhattan November 2019: Global Day of Coderetreat
On Saturday, November 16, I was going to have once again co-facilitated the New York City instance of Global Day of Coderetreat. I wound up not doing much of that, because Emmanuel Genard from Stride...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How to start pair programming
A reader asks for advice as his team gets started with pair programming.Pairing can be fun, cost-effective, and risk-reductive. These benefits come with skilled practice. The needed skills can, of...
View ArticleNYCBUG: What is notqmail?
On Wednesday, January 8, I attended the New York City BSD User Group to present What is notqmail?, a perhaps not entirely surprising followup to my March talk. At the time, I’d been trying to avoid...
View ArticleMini-SPA 2020: Strangle Your Legacy Code
On Friday, February 21, I presented “Strangle Your Legacy Code” at Mini-SPA, a one-day event in Leeds, UK. I wasn’t in Leeds, but my talk was. The abstract:Given an ancient codebase that makes...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Finias Tira Schleier
Our second child arrived a week ago, on April 27, at 3540 grams (7 pounds, 13 ounces). Wanting to minimize our stay in any sort of public place, we chose to return home with our same-day delivery....
View ArticleClik here to view.
notqmail 1.08 released
I’m pleased to announce notqmail 1.08, the latest update to notqmail. It addresses security vulnerabilities in qmail 1.03 reported yesterday by Qualys. As a fork, we’ve inherited qmail’s relatively few...
View ArticleBack to work, remote-style
After 4.5 months of parental leave, I once again have time, space, and attention for my consulting work. I’m pleased to be returning not only to my corporate and individual clients but also to PubMob,...
View ArticleJC-JUG October 2020: More Smaller Steps with GeePaw Hill
Remember when meetups still happened in locations? Of the 50 attendees at our first meetup of the revived Jersey City Java User Group, one admitted to living in the New York metropolitan area. And it...
View ArticleAgile Arizona 2020: Two Midwesterners Politely Invite You To Explore Coding
On Friday, November 13, Faye Thompson and I once again co-facilitated Two Midwesterners Politely Invite You To Explore Coding at Agile Arizona (rebranded “Agile Arisofa” for our remote-only era). The...
View ArticleJC-JUG November 2020: Stop Obsessing About Primitives with Ted M. Young
Last month’s meetup of the Jersey City Java User Group got us off to a rollicking restart. At yesterday’s, Ted M. Young (also known as JitterTed) presented Stop Obsessing about Primitives. Ted’s focus...
View ArticleJC-JUG December 2020: J. B. Rainsberger on Unlocking the Awesome Power of...
This month’s meetup of the Jersey City Java User Group continued the refactoring conversation from last month, as J. B. Rainsberger presented Unlocking the Awesome Power of Refactoring and discussion...
View Articledeliver:Agile: 2020 Geeky Wrap-Up
A year ago, or whenever the heck it was, I was helping organize the 2020 edition of deliver:Agile, the Agile Alliance conference focused on practitioners and techniques. (I had been part of the 2016,...
View ArticleJC-JUG January 2021: Emily Bache on Handling Legacy Code with Approvals and...
Our first Jersey City JUG session for 2021 followed the evolutionary design conversation from last month, as Emily Bache introduced a safety-enhancing technique for evolving the design of legacy code....
View ArticleOOP Konferenz 2021: Strangle Your Legacy Code
On February 8, I facilitated Strangle Your Legacy Code at OOP Konferenz. The abstract:Given an ancient codebase that makes refactoring risky and expensive, how do you clear a path to continued...
View ArticleJC-JUG February 2021: Dave Nicolette with Java on the Mainframe
For the February meetup of the Jersey City JUG, Dave Nicolette presented Java on the Mainframe.Most of us have written Java code. Some of us have written code that integrates with mainframes. Few of us...
View ArticleJC-JUG March 2021: Angie Jones on Modern Java Beyond Version 8
For the March meetup of the Jersey City JUG, Angie Jones presented Modern Java: Beyond Version 8.As a software development coach, I work with clients no matter what their code is written in. When...
View ArticleAO.com Webinar March 2021: Inside-Out TDDDD
On Friday, March 19, at the invitation of AO.com, I gave a public talk about joy and humanity in software development. The talk was primarily concerned with the effects of software craft on our...
View ArticleJC-JUG April 2021: Cat Swetel & Heidi Mitre on Continuous Verification Beyond...
For the April meetup of the Jersey City JUG, Cat Swetel and Heidi Mitre presented Continuous Verification: Beyond Chaos Engineering.About the presentation:As technologists, our work is increasingly...
View ArticleJC-JUG May 2021: Ryan Latta on Learning Under Pressure: Scala in a Hurry
For the May meetup of the Jersey City JUG, Ryan Latta presented Learning Under Pressure: Scala in a Hurry.About the presentation:How many times have you learned a new piece of tech while at work? I...
View ArticleLegacy of SoCraTes: Inside-Out TDDDD
On Thursday, June 17, for the 6th edition of “Legacy of SoCraTes”, I gave a public talk with this abstract:In inside-out TDD, we incrementally redesign objects, their interactions, and the system as a...
View ArticleJC-JUG June 2021: Julie Lerman, Helen Scott
In June, the Jersey City JUG had two meetups:Julie Lerman on Tackling System Complexity with Domain-Driven Design (sorry, no video)Helen Scott on Writing Code is Easy, Being a Great Developer Is Hard...
View ArticleJC-JUG August 2021: Nayan Hajratwala on Power Up Your Gradle
For the August meetup of the Jersey City JUG, Nayan Hajratwala presented Power Up Your Gradle.About the presentation:Does Gradle make you sad? Are slow & flaky builds stealing your time? Are you a...
View ArticleCode PaLOUsa 2021: Two Midwesterners Politely Invite You To Explore Coding
On Friday, August 20, Faye Thompson and I once again co-facilitated Two Midwesterners Politely Invite You To Explore Coding, this time as a 3-hour workshop at Code PaLOUsa 2021. The abstract:Wonder...
View ArticleJC-JUG September 2021: Mike Coon on You Get What You Ask For
For the September meetup of the Jersey City JUG, Mike Coon presented You get what you ask for — so you better ask for what you want.About the presentation:As we progress in an organization what we ask...
View ArticleSoCTAgile October 2021: Steve Doubleday on Three Frames of Software Development
I noticed last week that the Southern Connecticut Agile Meetup had gone maintainerless and decided to take it on. Welcome back! For our October meetup, Steve Doubleday presented Three Frames of...
View ArticleJC-JUG November 2021: Pejman Ghorbanzade on Continuous Regression Testing...
For the November meetup of the Jersey City JUG, Pejman Ghorbanzade presented Continuous Regression Testing Using Touca SDK for Java.About the presentation:Making code changes to real-world software...
View ArticleSoCTAgile November 2021: Esther Derby and Matthew Carlson on There Are No...
Welcome back to Southern Connecticut Agile! For our November meetup, Esther Derby and Matthew Carlson presented There Are No More Early Adopters of Agile.About the presentation:After 20 years, Agile...
View ArticleNovember crowdfunding update
[ About my public-facing work ]Starting now, I’m moving my monthly posts from Patreon to my own website here. Why?I prefer to own my dataThere are many ways (Patreon merely one among them) in which...
View ArticleJC-JUG December 2021: Bob Allen on Coaching Teams to Do the Impossible
For the December meetup of Jersey City Java, Bob Allen presented Coaching Teams to Do the Impossible… as they see it, and, without straining their backs.About the presentation:As some of you likely...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Galila Yara Schleier
Our third child arrived yesterday, on April 26, at 7 pounds. She was determined to make her debut in the car but instead came out moments after her mom got on the hospital bed. Meet Galila Yara...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Daily piano miniatures
Since May, I’ve been posting a new video just about every day. What’s in the videos? A short piano piece, played as well as I can quickly learn it. “Short” means, based on a sample size of 72 videos,...
View ArticleWho needs an Amitai?
I’m looking for my next full-time role in engineering leadership (such as Director, VP, CTO) and/or senior engineering (such as Principal or Staff).I love people, want them to succeed, and have fairly...
View ArticleIntermission
It’s been a few weeks since my last Weekly Piano Miniature and I don’t feel bad about it. That’s a strong signal.Why don’t I feel bad? Because Weekly Piano Miniatures lasted an entire year (and Daily...
View Article
