Are you using Docker for local development?

Mateusz Bełczowski — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 21:56:56 +0000

I've been using Docker and Docker-Compose for more than two years and I really can see a lot of benefits when it comes to CI/CD pipelines and deployment.

On the other hand, it seems like the use of Docker can slow down the local development process. Just a few examples from the top of my head:

more complicated setup (if you want to have auto-reloading and avoid building new version on every change)
running a single test can be much slower (the cost of bringing up the containers)
cost of installing new packages
etc.

What is your experience when it comes to using Docker for development? What are the tricks that can make easier and more efficient? I'm curious to see your ideas :)

What resources would you recommend to learn Rust?

Mateusz Bełczowski — Wed, 02 Jan 2019 22:44:14 +0000

My primary language is Python, but I also have some experience in JS, Java and C++. I have read Rust docs a few months ago, but since then I haven't written any code so I hardly remember anything.

I'm looking for a site/book/course with a practical approach (exercises, challenges etc.) to jumpstart my learning process this time. What would you recommend?

Looking forward to reading your suggestions :)

My favorite technology-related podcasts

Mateusz Bełczowski — Sat, 12 May 2018 11:46:00 +0000

Why are the podcasts worth listening?

I started listening to podcasts regularly about two years ago. I had an hour-long commute to my university, so that was a lot of time to kill. And I thought that I could spend it listening to something else than one of my few standard Spotify playlists.

I immediately fell in love with this way of spending my free time. It requires less attention than reading or watching videos and in opposite to previously mentioned things, can be easily combined with other activities.

My top picks

Talk Python To Me

It's a weekly podcast done by Michael Kennedy. Before I started listening to it, I haven't realized that Python was used in so many areas. It usually takes a form of an hour-long interview about specific library or industry that is using Python (but of course there are many more topics). Have a look at the list of the episodes. I'm sure that you'll find something for yourself.

link: https://talkpython.fm/

Coding Blocks

These guys are awesome! I have listened to 60 episodes so far (there are 80 episodes at this moment), but I have a feeling that I will be up-to-date soon. I haven't written any C# code since my university classes 5 years ago, but most of their topics seem to be language-agnostic. I really enjoy their discussions about software design, best practices and many more (not always so technical stuff). They have a great sense of humour!

link: https://www.codingblocks.net/

Soft Skills Engineering

It's the least technical podcast on this list. As the name suggests, they are talking about soft skills related topics in the engineering field (mostly software development). The podcast usually includes them trying to answer 2 questions from the listeners (e.g. about asking for a rise, quitting a job, taking a job interview or dealing with frustrating people at work). And they are really funny about it. There are a lot of things that I have learned from them, so I had to mention this podcast.

link: https://softskills.audio/

Software Engineering Daily

It's a daily show that presents a broad range of topics related to software engineering. It takes a form of an interview with the detailed discussion about the given technology. The host does a really good job at beginning of the show when explaining the high-level picture of the technology and what can it be used for. This really helps to follow the interview without more advanced knowledge on given topic. I really like that the interviews present technologies used by the popular companies at scale, their problems and reasons behind their technical decisions.

link: https://softwareengineeringdaily.com/

Python Bytes

It's a weekly Python newsletter in the form of podcast. Michael and Brian are discussing things that happened recently in the world of Python and presenting most interesting articles. Although I'm following a lot of people from the Python community, I can still miss on something important. Thanks to them, I can easily catch-up with the news.

link: https://pythonbytes.fm/

Software Engineering Radio

It's a podcast targeted at the software engineers. They discuss a full range of topics from the Software Engineering industry. In opposite to Software Engineering Daily, this podcast is published twice a month or so - it's easier to find time to listen to them. The topics also seem to be more general e.g. Cloud Security or Image Recognition.

link: http://www.se-radio.net/

The Art of Product

I take a lot of inspiration from this podcast. Ben and Derrick are talking about the intersection of code and business. They discuss the process of building your own product, lessons learned from managing software at scale and much more. If you think of becoming an entrepreneur in the future, it's definitely worth checking out.

link: http://artofproductpodcast.com/

Forem: Mateusz Bełczowski