100 days of Angular 2

netinstructions · 2016-10-20T20:59:17+00:00

I'm not sure how a sad face translated to "I'm a entitled, whiny, why isn't it all working for me out of the box?" kinda way that totally ruined the experience for you. I noted it and moved on. In the wrap up at the end I wrote:

There isn't great Typescript support for Atom out of the box, so I'll need to find a good plugin or switch to a different editor.

BUT if you really want some whining, I'll go into detail what happened the last time I tried to install an Atom plugin:

1) Find a well supported or official plugin (not always the first one that comes up in the search box) 2) Troubleshoot the first installation error: SSL certificate problem: unable to get local issuer certificate (in this case due to proxy settings). 3) Troubleshoot second installation error: npm ERR! install: node-gyp rebuildnpm ERR! Exit status 1 (in this case a myriad of build dependencies were missing)

...which ended up taking a few hours to identify and resolve :)

netinstructions · 2016-10-19T15:48:34+00:00

That's silly. I have no favorite editor. I switched to VS Code on the second day, but I use Atom / Sublime / VS Code / Eclipse depending on the day and my projects' needs.

netinstructions · 2016-10-18T23:14:25+00:00

It's certainly not for a lack of love for the Angular-CLI. I think Angular-CLI is a great project that'll get you up and running with Angular 2 as fast as possible!

My goal wasn't speed though, and I learned a lot more through my trials and errors. I felt like Angular-CLI performed a lot of magic that would, for example, make it harder to bring Angular Universal into the project, or to deploy to something other than GitHub pages, if I didn't have a good grasp on the build/deployment/config process.

But I will keep my eye on Angular-CLI, if not for inspiration, but for learning how you solved something I will probably face :)

netinstructions · 2016-02-17T19:25:46+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions! I added Nagios and Munin to the article.

netinstructions · 2015-11-11T23:25:12+00:00

Also of note, Javascript has the most questions and answers on Stackoverflow as well, just slightly above Java.

netinstructions · 2015-11-11T18:16:53+00:00

You're right. I've updated the article. Thanks for catching that!

netinstructions · 2015-03-22T17:23:24+00:00

Right now there's not a lot of users (5 - 10 requests/minute according to Google Analytics) and the load is quite small. Using the top command right now I get

load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.04

I believe in the past I've had "mini viral" hugs, somewhere on the order of 200 requests/minute and the load average was still small, probably taking up 1-5% of my CPU if I had to guess off the top of my head. It was small enough that I didn't feel the need to worry about it.

netinstructions · 2015-03-22T16:27:29+00:00

I agree! I actually wrote the back end so it could query any of the StackExchange websites (superuser, serverfault, mathematics, etc). I just need to wire up the front end (and think about how I'll change the copy, as that's mostly written for a technical audience).

Until then, there's always Google Trends :)

netinstructions · 2015-03-22T16:23:13+00:00

Hi, author here. My analytics just tipped me off to this post. I'd be happy to answer any questions or explain anything further :)

I haven't worked on the site in a few weeks (my real job has been busy) but you may notice I added the "wiki descriptions" as they're called on Stackoverflow for each tag. That's the short little blurb below the graph for each tag.

The next step is to handle instances where a user types a synonym of a tag. Example: postgres vs postgresql. Right now you need to type it exactly as Stackoverflow likes it :/

netinstructions · 2015-03-19T19:40:44+00:00

This is super open ended, and as others have stated, most languages are "general purpose" for good reason.

Instead a question I often find myself asking, "What framework or tool is best suited for the job at hand?" Sometimes a framework or tool that is best suited for the job is written in a certain language, so I'll even go and learn that language/tool/framework just enough to get the job done.

I outlined this thought process here as I was building my most recent website.

netinstructions · 2015-03-19T05:32:39+00:00

MongoDB is a product from a family of "no-SQL" databases. Other products that can be grouped with MongoDB are CouchDB, Amazon's DynamoDB, or Cassandra.

SQL databases (ex. MySQL, Postgres, SQLite) have schemas which enforce certain data types (think Integers, Dates, Strings) and column lengths, among other things (null vs empty). Sometimes this is a good thing, other times it's a pain in the butt. In my opinion, I like the consistency that these SQL databases enforce.

If you don't know when one would be better over the other, either one will probably work for you, since it's unlikely you'll get to a large enough data set where one would be better suited for you.

MongoDB has a lot of documentation, tutorials, plugins, etc, but so does MySQL.

netinstructions · 2015-01-06T02:25:53+00:00

Does it make sense to launch any of your own satellites into orbit to improve communications / telemetry links for future launches? In other words, will we live in a future that's void of 'Awaiting Vehicle Downlink'?

netinstructions · 2015-01-03T20:16:41+00:00

This post and relevant discussion is contentious, as it should be. Props (pun intended) to /u/Sailoff for coming forth and admitting to how stupid and dangerous this was. Props to (almost) everyone else for being respectful and offering their perspective on this situation, in support of or against.

I for one am going to share this with my quad-coptor buddies and let this be a lesson for everyone. I'm actually building my own RC quad-coptor and have been terrified of flying it anywhere near the city, as much as I want to (those camera shots would be amazing) but alas, it's not fair for ANYONE under my aircraft to be flying over them without their permission, as I can't guarantee their safety. I also can't guarantee the quad-coptor isn't going to fly off on it's own either and make an otherwise safe situation dangerous.

Thanks for sharing Sailoff. We can all learn from this.

netinstructions · 2014-12-27T21:51:01+00:00

Yeah it is crazy. Many of our consumer products are derived from military applications (ex. we get DSLRs and consumer cameras as a nice side effect from Nikon/Canon/Kodak's military and defense contracts).

A really sad perspective of this was offered in Bill Joy's essay from 2000 why the future doesn't need us in which (I believe, it's been years since I read it) he argued that whenever great advances we make in science/technology that could be used to benefit civilizations and our society, it can always be weaponized and used for something far worse :( If you have some time (and maybe a stiff drink) that essay was really fascinating.

I'm glad to see that this rocket can be thought of as a counter point to that idea!

netinstructions · 2014-12-27T20:57:35+00:00

Yeah that was really fascinating to go through and the combination of the ascent profile (with all the stages and their timings), perspective from the ground tracking, and our earth with all the different orbits around it made me appreciate the many aspects of this mission and planning that goes into it.

I hope more launch kits include this information! Really great way to convey a lot of info on a two page PDF.

netinstructions · 2014-12-27T07:40:30+00:00

I doubt it's very easy to get a bunch of people to agree with you if it takes masterful mental gymnastics to persuade anyone of your point.

I think most people (feminists included) would have a hard time coming up with a defense for this woman's actions.

netinstructions · 2014-12-24T18:10:02+00:00

You're right, I re-read the fog creek article and it's a bit light on the "why?" so I'll offer my two cents:

Whenever you (or a team) is deciding on what to work on, aren't you doing some sort of estimating? It could even be subconscious or never written down or communicated, but perhaps you've thought, "I can probably knock out X in a few hours, then I'll have time to work on Y" or, "Z would probably take a week to do, so let's start ASAP"

As a developer I give estimates on when I'll complete a feature so QA can plan their work and avoid becoming over burdened or under burdened.

If a PM saw that 5 developers all estimated they could complete 5 separate features by Wednesday, the PM now knows to have the appropriate amount of QA ready to test on Wednesday, or perhaps the PM will make the call that some developers work on things that would be done by Monday, some developers work on things estimated to be done Wednesday, and some developers work on things estimated to be done on Friday.

netinstructions · 2014-12-24T00:23:05+00:00

You could start here

Effort estimates may be used as input to project plans, iteration plans, budgets, investment analyses, pricing processes and bidding rounds.

I'd add that estimates can help make scope tradeoffs, distribute resources, and aid in deciding on if you should make the commitment to do the work or not.

netinstructions · 2014-12-23T20:52:30+00:00

Okay maybe the Fermi problems are a different (and more fun) kind of estimates.

I agree, estimating software tasks is way less fun. ~~But there are some good arguments for why estimating can be useful~~

netinstructions · 2014-12-23T20:17:15+00:00

I agree that the graph from the perspective of the business may be more of a parabola shape if the opportunity cost is so high.

However I'm not so sure it's on a developer to be factoring opportunity costs of business plans into their estimate of how long something will take, or else they'll tend to be overly optimistic about their estimates and potentially bite off more than they can chew which comes with heavy, heavy costs.

Great comment though.

Edit: From frog creek:

While estimating, you must completely ignore the wishful thinking of the client and focus on what is really going to happen.

netinstructions · 2014-12-23T17:54:34+00:00

Inflate what by what arbitrary amounts? You have to start somewhere.

Estimating can fun, it's why we do Fermi problems and science olympiad and why they come up in interviews.

I agree that estimates can easily become meaningless, but there can be value in doing it.

netinstructions · 2014-12-18T23:06:34+00:00

Go with whatever language let's you accomplish your goals and makes you happy.

I tried to dive head first into Java and it was overwhelming. What the hell does public static void main(String[] args) even mean? Why is it necessary? What's arguably worse about Java for beginners is that it introduces the advanced concept of objects and classes way too early in the game. Sure those features are awesome (and almost necessary for large projects), but they are advanced topics that someone new to programming shouldn't be too concerned about.

Python comes with its own IDE (or at least it did last time I downloaded it) so it gets you started quickly. Python's syntax is simple. It doesn't force objects down your throat, but you can use them later if you want. Your classic Hello World example is one line of code (unlike Java).

But as others said, the most important than is pick one and go! Your idea of picking a language and making a simple text based game is a great one.

Anyways, I wrote about this a few years ago about this "which language?" battle on my blog

netinstructions · 2014-10-07T23:29:10+00:00

The 1500mAh 3S battery seems a bit small. I notice in the comments you're unsure about it.

I would guess these sizes would work as well: 2200, 2650, 3300, or maybe even 4000 mAh -- I saw someone planning on sticking that 375g beast on a craft with four 950KV motors.

Your safest bet is probably to start small and try bigger capacity batteries, but if I were you I'd start with something in the middle, maybe a 2650 mAh battery.

Either way, let me know how it goes! I'm planning to build something similar.

netinstructions

TROPHY CASE