programming

Thoughts
February 2, 2018
How Do We Best Teach Programming to Beginners?
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how I teach. I tend to take a “learn by doing” approach in my online courses where there are very clear, step-by-step instructions completed via video. However, this format gets pretty tough to execute in other contexts. For example, I teach an online graduate course for the University of Scranton, which is primarily text-based. This course’s goal is to get students with a healthcare background proficient in programming; the assumption is they are at least somewhat technical. After getting feedback, especially this semester, I’m realizing the approach my co-author and I took in creating the course was wrong. This got me thinking: how do we best teach programming to people who have never seen it?
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Briefs
On Friday I was presented with a problem that I had no idea how to solve. Unfamiliar with most aspects of it, I did what any reasonable person would do. I freaked out and went to bed.
After a solid night’s sleep I did some research, came up with a plan, and by Sunday afternoon, I had a good solution to this problem implemented. It was frustrating, but invigorating when I finished.
My favorite part about programming is just that. I went from “no idea where to start” to “working solution” in less than 48 hours. Problem solving at its best.
July 27, 2015
News
February 25, 2015
The NEPA Hackathon is Back for 2015
Mark your Calendars! I’m happy to announce The NEPA Hackathon is back for 2015 and it will be better than last year. We are still in the early planning stages, but we have a new location, more folks involved, and maybe even a few prizes! Keep at eye out here or on the Twitter account, @nepahackathon for more information.
Date/Time: May 9th, 2015 from 10am – 3pm
Location: Coalwork, 544 Spruce St. Scranton, PA
If you’re interested in getting involved (attending, volunteering, sponsoring), get in touch here.
Quick Tips
October 22, 2014
GitGutter for Sublime Makes Diffs Easy
At Crowd Favorite we use git for everything, which is a nice change from my old workflow of hoping for the best. I’ve learned quite a bit about git and Github since starting and have looked for tools to help me do things better. A really simple, but super helpful, tool is the GitGutter package for Sublime (thanks Dave!)
It’s very straight forward: when you add, change, or delete a line, it will put small icons in the gutter of your file, with the line numbers, to make it easier for your to spot where you made modifications. It doesn’t seem like much, but I definitely miss it when I’m using a different editor or machine. Check it out!
GitGutter for Sublime
Gear
May 1, 2014
What is a Hackathon?
According to Wikipedia, a hackathon is defined as:
…an event in which computer programmers and others involved in software development, including graphic designers, interface designers and project managers, collaborate intensively on software projects.
Basically, it’s a place were people who work with computers can come together to hopefully make something awesome. There are all types of hackathons, from ones that last a few hours, to 24 hour long, to ones that even last several days.
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Gear
April 26, 2014
Don’t be Afraid to Relearn
Just the other day I picked up a new book called PHP: The Good Parts. I’ve been programming PHP for over 10 years, and the book covers a lot of beginner topics like control structures, variables, etc. However, there is some stuff towards the end that will be of great value. I plan on reading the (short) book cover-to-cover. Why you ask? I feel like I have to; after so many years, there are some things I should relearn the right way.
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Code
February 4, 2014
Sass, Sublime Text, Github, and Changing my Development Workflow
When I left the full time freelancing world 2.5ish years ago, I had a very specific way I did things and I enjoyed it; however, admittedly, it wasn’t the best. I was using Coda, not making local copies, not using any form of version control, and my frameworks were becoming stale. I’ve been going to lots of WordCamps lately, talking to a lot of coders, listening to a lot of podcasts, and I came to the conclusion that the way I did things when I left the freelance world, the things I still do today, are not only outdated, they are slowing me down, and are dangerous (in the case of data loss). I decided to change that.
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Links
June 21, 2013
Interesting Links for June 21, 2013
Happy 1st official day of summer. The Internet has been particularly good this week so I wanted to share some of the interesting links I’ve come across.
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Links
February 20, 2011
Links Round Up for 02/20/11
- Freelance Freedom: Email Delusion (comic): This is oh so very true. It’s kind of sad.
- Back to the Future (photography): This is really cool; the photographer recreates old photos using the same person 20+ years later.
- Psychic Show Cancelled due to “Unforeseen Circumstances” (wired): This isÂ hilariousÂ to me.
- Twitter Faux Pas (red cross): It’s cool to see somethings that could have been a PR nightmare turn into something good. Kudos to Dogfish Head.
- Twitter’s Biz Stone: “We are not Valued at $10 Billion” (techcrunch): Oh hey…people are over-inflating an Internet company’s value? Kudos to the Twitter guys for squashing this!
- Apple’s App Store Bad for Consumers, AT&T CEO says (bgr): I have always thought this. It’s one of the main reasons I prefer Android to iOS.
- LEGO Robot Solves a Rubikâ€™s Cube in 25 Seconds Using Droid Phone: Oh good. Another Android phone that is now smarter than me.
- Sync Your Android with Your Mac using Syncmate (android.appstorm): In my latest article on Android.Appstorm, I look over the software Syncmate, which allows you to sync Calendar, Contacts, Bookmarks, iTunes, Photos, and more with your Mac.
- Why You’re a Bad Programmer (nettuts): Seriously, don’t be a wang.
Random Thoughts
March 16, 2009
My Eclipse Tutorial at Theme Forest
Theme Forest posted my tutorial on using Eclipse with PDT to make a nice PHP IDE.
Check it out here

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