Category: Uncategorized

Who should present at SledgeConf?

SledgeConf is a remote ‘tiny conference’ focused on the software industry and software development. Anyone is welcome to present on our three themes “Software, Consulting and Teams”. 

See our article below on the SledgeConf themes.

SledgeConf Request for Talks and Themes guide

Do you need to be a software engineer to present at SledgeConf?
No, you don’t need to be a software engineer or even able to code to present at SledgeConf. We just ask that your topic be pertinent to the Software industry. 

Do you need to pay to submit or present a talk to SledgeConf?

No, submitting and presenting talks is free just email a 3-5 sentence summary of your talk idea at my email. nick@sledgeworx.io

Do you need to pay to attend SledgeConf?

No, attending SledgeConf is free for individuals. Depending on interest, we may offer paid corporate pass with extra benefits. 

What equipment do you need to present a talk at SledgeConf?

To present you will need a device that can run the Zoom application and has a microphone so you can talk and answer questions. A smartphone could work, but we would need to test it ahead of time. If you don’t have the equipment needed to present, but have a great talk you want to present, reach out to us and we can try to coordinate something in Seattle. 

What is the process to presenting a talk at SledgeConf?

The process is slightly ad hoc at this point. The first step is to send me an email saying that you are interested in presenting and giving a short 3-5 sentence summary of your talk idea. I will get back to you within a day or two with my thoughts on the talk. You might be asked to modify your talk slightly if we already have a talk on that subject or it doesn’t clearly match one of our themes. 

Once we have agreed on a talk topic, and depending on what slots we have left, you can pick whether to do a full 50 minutes of talk and Q&A or to do a lightening talk with 5 minutes of presentation and 5 minutes of questions. 

SledgeConf Request for Talks and Themes guide

We are open to talk submissions for SledgeConf 2020. Please apply today. To apply please email me at nick@sledgeworx.io with a 3-5 sentence summary of your talk.

SledgeConf is a remote tiny conference (https://briancasel.com/tiny-conferences/) debuting August 7th and 8th 2020. So far our survey of whether people preferred weekdays or weekends is a flat tie, so we are doing both. There will be up to six 50 minute presentations and six lightening talks spread across two days of festivities. 

The themes for this years conference are Software, Consulting and Teams. Proposed talks should apply to at least one of these themes. The conference is targeted towards software engineers but talks from outside the industry are welcome if they apply to at least one of the themes. 

Software is a pretty large theme. Talks in this category can range from software tutorials, “Integrating full text search in Rails with Postgres tsvectors” for example, to discussions of industry wide issues. A talk on wastewater management in the Bahamas would not be appropriate unless the focus was on the software used. 

Consulting is our second theme in 2020. Talks in this category will cover issues software consultants and agencies, large and small face in their business. A great talk might be “How I found my niche as a React.js charting consultant”. 

Teams is our final theme for SledgeConf 2020. Most software is developed collaboratively and how we do that is a major part of our work. Talks in this category cover the organizational issues involved in building software. A great talk might be “Begging, Borrowing and Stealing our way to consistent data collection for estimates at $Company”. 

To submit your talk please email me at nick@sledgeworx.io with a 3-5 sentence summary of your talk subject.

Ex.

Hey, Nick, I’m interested in presenting at SledgeConf 2020! My idea for the talk is Integrating full text search in Rails with Postgres tsvectors. My project deepeats is a food ingredients discovery tool and we had an interesting time integrating full text search especially when supporting image uploads of ingredients list.

Thanks,

Example Person

To keep up with the latest updates on SledgeConf sign up to the mailing list!

Recruiter spam of underpar jobs

As your career progresses recruiters will start to spam you with lower quality jobs. I’ve had weeks where I was messaged on linkedin about a job several times per day. Normally that would be great, except most of these jobs would be worse than the job I already have. 

I’m not looking to make a downward move in my career. At some point I might start a startup or take a position as a cofounder, but otherwise I’m looking to move up in my career. Meaning that I am looking for jobs that are higher paying and higher responsibility. Not jobs that are lower paying and require less skill than my current job. 

Why do recruiters spam these lower quality jobs? Honestly, I think they are just spamming them in general without reading people’s profiles at all. Recruiters are paid on commission and there really isn’t any penalty to them for wasting people’s time other than Linkedin charging them for premium. But its not like I’m going to have a moment of weakness, respond to one of these contract for hire java developer positions and then accept an offer for half of my current pay. 

For now the solution is probably to block these recruiters on Linkedin.

Matias Ergo Pro review + affiliate link

I had a Matias Ergo Pro mac version for about 3 years, purchased in May 2016. It lasted until the end of 2019 when the USB C port that connects the keyboard to the computer died. I bought the keyboard after I started getting pains in my fingers during a gaming phase. Using this keyboard with a vertical mouse eliminated my hand pain. 

The Ergo Pro is pretty solidly built, the wrist pads are comfortable. I replaced the wrist pads after about 2 years when they started to come apart. The two halves of the keyboard can be positioned to match your natural hand tilt which is very nice. 

The most annoying issue I have had with this keyboard is that it collects dust and crumbs over time, (years), and that can have an effect on the keys. Your keys will start acting up in weird ways. The first option is to flip over the keyboard and shake it out, then if that doesn’t do it. Take the keys off and really clean it. I don’t remember if it came with a key removing tool, but  its pretty easy to get the keys out, harder to get them back in. 

Disassembling the case is straightforward, it has two sizes of screws and my ikea set was able to do all of them. 

I’m pretty annoyed that my keyboard broke I would have kept using it. 

I strongly recommend the Ergo Pro for mac users with a desktop style setup. I used mine with a laptop and external monitor. The best features of the keyboard are its ergonomics and its custom mac keys. I’m using a more standard windows style keyboard now and I miss having my command, fn and option keys positioned so conveniently. 

Links Post — Q4 2019

Here are some interesting links I’ve come across over the last few months. 

htop explained 

https://peteris.rocks/blog/htop/#htop-on-ubuntu-server-16-04-x64

4 Types of Documentation 

https://www.divio.com/blog/documentation/

Making a Language Server 

https://nickmqb.github.io/2019/11/24/building-a-language-server-for-muon.html