2013 Summary

This post is meant to be a point of reference for the upcoming year, that is to track my own progress (or lack of it) in the future.

Most notably:

• new job - moved to London to work for Sky Network Services (part of Sky)
  

• professionally in: Java, JavaScript
  
• for fun in: Ruby, Clojure
  …and very briefly in: Bash, Python, C#
  
  New frameworks and tools used in projects:
  
• Gradle (multi-language build tool)
  
• AngularJS (single-page apps with JavaScript)
  
• Jasmine and PhantomJS (unit testing setup for JavaScript)
  
• SpringJDBC (Database interface for Java)
  
• Jersey (RESTful web services for Java)
  
• Yatspec (supporting Java tool for Behaviour Driven Development)
  
• Spark (Sinatra-inspired micro framework for web applications in Java)
  
• writing one’s own MVC framework
  
• …and  IntelliJ (Java IDE), Mac, MacOS, TeamCity (Continuous Integration supporting tool)
  
  Attended meetups:
  
• Global Day of Code Retreat 2013 at Valtech, London (by LSCC)
  - Software Craftsmanship Round Tables (by LSCC)
  
• Evening Code and Coffee / Craft Beer (by LSCC)
  
• eXtreme Tuesdays Club
  
• Architectural Kata with Alexandru Bolboaca (by LSCC)
  
• BDD workshop with Steve Tookie (by LSCC)
  
• BDD workshop with Meza Meszaros (by eXtreme Tuesdays Club)
  
  Seen live and had a short chat with:
  
• Kent Beck (“My first feature and beyond: Why I work at Facebook”)
  
• Uncle Bob (“Automated Acceptance Testing”, “Professionalism”, “Design Patterns”)
  
  Seen live (people I had heard of before moving to London):
  
• Michael Feathers, Steve Freeman, Nat Pryce, Dan North, Tim Mackinnon, Liz Keogh, Keith Braithwaite, Sandro Mancuso, Giovanni Asproni, Enrique Comba Riepenhausen
  
  Read books:
  
• Practical Object-Oriented Design in Ruby by Sandi Metz
  
• Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns by Kent Beck
  
• Responsible Design in Android by J.B. Rainsberger
  
• Confident Ruby by Avdi Grimm
  
• Are your lights on? by D. Gause, G. Weinberg
  
• … and partially bunch of other ones :)
  
  Watched podcasts/screencasts:
  
• Destroy All Software by Gary Bernhardt
  
• Clean Coders by Uncle Bob
  
• Test-Driven Development by Kent Beck
  
• Ruby Rogues
  
  And finally read/watched way to many blog posts, articles, interviews, conference talks, etc :)