Articles tagged 'favorite'

Status Pages, and Why Companies Can't Be Relied On

A

In the age of using internet sites for important things – communication, say, or banking – we’ve grown status pages, to let companies know whether their service is currently working.

In fact, a lot of companies started growing external status pages, so other people could tell you whether their site was working. That’s a lot of what let status pages happen at all. If you don’t provide it, somebody else will.

Why is it so bad for somebody else to provide that? What’s different about a company’s official status page?

As I write this there’s an ugly Discord outage which is barely acknowledged on their status page, so it’s a great time for me to talk about that.

Ways to Keep Software Working

Various

I can talk about keeping software working and why we care and theorise all I like. But normally people have something decent working on the ground long before the theorists catch up. What’s working on the ground? How do we currently keep software working?

I’m writing this with an eye toward individual software developers keeping things working by themselves, which says a few things about methods and budget. So let’s look!

We use many methods, with many tradeoffs. And we all use a mixture of them.

Your Value Proposition as a Software Developer

Various

Sometimes folks will tell you to think about your value proposition – what actual benefit you bring to the table – as a software developer. That could be to negotiate your salary, interviews or promotions. It could be as a freelancer or consultant. It could also just be a way to let you get included in a really cool project (“hey, I can help you out!”)

So what’s your value proposition? What do you actually bring to the table?

Subscribe to get free ebook chapters and an emailed coding class now, plus videos and articles a few times a month.

Why this specific newsletter? You want to be an expert. Expertise comes from learning the fundamentals, deeply. And that comes from the best kind of practice. I write with that in mind. I won't waste your time.

(Yes, I also sell things. They're good, but I'm fine if you don't buy them.)