Learning – RichHewlett.com

Current Podcast Recommendations

As someone with a long commute I find Podcasts a great way of keeping up to date with technology (as well as other things) and it helps me feel that my commute time is not wasted. Over the years I think I have benefited from this approach as its increased my level of general knowledge and helped me keep up to date with the latest developments in the industry.

Over the last ten years I have occasionally posted my top podcast picks and here are the links to my previous posts in 2010, 2012 and 2016.

Below is a list of my current podcast recommendations for technical and non-technical subjects.

Podcasts on Software Development:

Podcasts on Technology:

Other Recommended Podcasts :

Developer Roadmaps

Something that’s proving popular on Medium these days are “development roadmaps” that outline a roadmap approach to choosing techniques and technologies for certain technical domains (for example Web development or Dev Ops). Some of these are particularly powerful for putting the many bewildering technologies all on one page with logical grouping and a visual representation of how they interact. Modern web development has seen so much change over recent times that it is very easy to get lost and become overwhelmed and these roadmaps can help clear the fog (a little).

My favourite is the Web Developer Roadmap in 2019 maintained by Kamran Ahmed over on GitHub.

I have shared this with several people who have also found it useful regardless of their level of expertise. The front end roadmap is a great guide to what the community are currently settling on as the standard choices for tooling and techniques. I have checked back to the roadmap a few times over the last 6 months to verify my approach when starting on a new project and I find that visualising the options makes decision making easier.

There are also Backend and DevOps Roadmaps included which are equally as useful.

For some more useful roadmaps check out this medium post.

Useful Git Training Links

Having recently had to compile a list of useful learning resources for a development team migrating to git, I thought I would share them here.

Git is a very powerful and versatile distributed source control system but its not the easiest for a newbie to get their head around. The below links are ordered from tutorials based on giving an overview of git through to more advanced topics.

What is Git – a nice overview article by Atlassian
Learn Enough Git to Be Dangerous tutorial by Michael Hartl
Git the Simple Guide – An excellent simple, straight to the point guide to git by Roger Dudler. (My favourite guide)
Git Tutorial – Another tutorial
Git Cheat Sheet – cheat sheet for git and github commands
The official git site documentation and tutorials
Pro GIT ebook – an excellent definitive guide to git in a free ebook format

GitHub External Training Links:

If you or your team also need to learn GitHub then here are some good training links.

A great hello world example and introduction to GitHub
Git Started With GitHub – free course from udemy
Training videos on YouTube

Also its worth remembering that Microsoft offer FREE private git repository hosting via the Visual Studio Team Services if you don’t want to host all your projects publicly.

Useful React.JS Learning Resources

Below are some links that you might find useful for learning React.js and Flux, Facebook’s successful JavaScript UI framework. There are a lot of resources out there but here are some of the best that I have collected for members of my team.

Introductions and overviews of React.js:

The React homepage : https://facebook.github.io/react/
Official getting started guide: http://facebook.github.io/react/docs/getting-started.html
Official tutorial: http://facebook.github.io/react/docs/tutorial.html
Solid dummies guide overview: http://blog.andrewray.me/reactjs-for-stupid-people/
Cheat sheet of key concepts: http://ricostacruz.com/cheatsheets/react.html
Solid overview: https://scotch.io/tutorials/learning-react-getting-started-and-concepts
Example Todo application: http://todomvc.com/examples/react/#/active
Controller views : http://blog.andrewray.me/the-reactjs-controller-view-pattern/
State : https://medium.com/react-tutorials/react-state-14a6d4f736f5#.qjotypb2l
Props : https://medium.com/react-tutorials/react-properties-ef11cd55caa0?source=latest—
Components : https://medium.com/react-tutorials/react-components-828c397e3dc8#.uot8gvkz4
Official docs on React Forms: https://facebook.github.io/react/docs/forms.html
React Forms: http://jamesknelson.com/learn-raw-react-ridiculously-simple-forms/
More React Forms: http://stackovrflow.com/questions/24147331/react-the-right-way-to-pass-form-element-state-to-sibling-parent-elements
And More React Forms: https://blog.iasinnott.com/managing-state-and-controlled-form-fields-with-react

Flux:

The Flux homepage https://facebook.github.io/flux/docs/overview.html
Solid dummies guide overview: http://blog.andrewray.me/flux-for-stupid-people/
Another solid overview: http://jonathancreamer.com/what-the-flux/

Tutorials for Flux & React:

Books:

Prefer the old school approach of reading a book then instead check out this: React.js Essentials by Artemij Fedosejev

My Current Podcast Picks

I like to make the most of my two hour commute and see this time as study time and an opportunity to learn new stuff. Every few years I list my current podcast picks on this blog, so here are my current list of regular podcasts, and this year the subjects are more varied than before to include a new found interest in Photography and Finance.

Check out my previous posts here:
https://richhewlett.com/2012/11/21/my-current-technology-podcast-picks/
https://richhewlett.com/2010/02/12/recommended-podcasts-for-net-developers/

Succinctly Excellent Free Technical E-Books

There are a lot of free ebooks covering technical subjects, and there are a lot of ebooks that have excellent content however finding some with both attributes can be hard. Syncfusion have a collection of really good technical overview books that cover different subjects ‘succinctly’.

https://www.syncfusion.com/resources/techportal/ebooks

These are not 1000 page monsters but instead focus on providing enough to get you up and running without the fluff. They are free to download and very easy to read. I particulary recommend the JavaScript, HTTP and CSS ones. Oh and I nearly forgot to mention that they come in both PDF and Kindle formats.

Building A Learning Culture

I’m keen on fostering a learning culture within teams and was drawn to this article on InfoQ “Creating a Culture of Learning and Innovation by Jeff Plummer” which shows what can be achieved through community learning. In the article Jeff outlines how a learning culture was developed within his organisation using simple yet effective crowd sourcing methods.

I have implemented a community learning approach on a smaller scale using informal Lunch & Learns where dev’s give up their lunch break routine to eat their lunch together whilst learning something new, with the presenter\teacher being one of the team who has volunteered to share their knowledge on a particular subject. Sometimes the presenter will already have the knowledge they are sharing but other times they have volunteered to go and learn a subject first and then present it back to the group. Lunch & Learns work even better if you can convince your company to buy the lunch (it’s much cheaper per head than most other training options).

It’s hard to justify expensive training courses these days but that said it’s also never been easier to find free or low cost training by looking online. As Jeff points out innovation often comes from learning subjects not directly relevant to your day job. In my approach to learning with team I have always tried to mix specific job relevant subjects with seemingly less relevant ones. For example a session on Node.js for a team of .Net developers would be hard to justify in monetary terms however I’ve no doubt the developers took away important points around new web paradigms, non-blocking threads, web server models, and much more. Developers like to learn something new and innovation often comes from taking ideas that already exist elsewhere in a different domain and applying them to the current problem.

I agree with Jeff’s point that the champions are key to the success of this initiative. It is likely that the first few subjects will be taught by the champion(s) and they will need to promote the process to others. One tip to take some of the load off the champions is to mix in video sessions as well as presenter based learning sessions. There are a lot of excellent conference session videos and these can make a good Lunch & Learn sessions. Once the momentum builds it becomes the norm for everyone to be involved and this crucially triggers a general sense of learning and of sharing that learning experience with others.

The End Of TechNet Downloads Raises The Barrier To Entry For MS Techies

Microsoft unfortunately recently announced the demise of the TechNet Subscription. Whilst I appreciate that TechNet download abuse must contribute towards the availability of pirated products, I still think that this is a short sighted move by Microsoft. The MSDN subscription will continue (for now) and anyone making money from privacy will be able to cover the extra cost of an MSDN subscription. Few individuals, however, are able to afford an MSDN subscription to feed their enthusiasm for Microsoft products. Nor would they want to with attractive alternatives being available from other vendors.

My concern is that the barrier to entry for being a Microsoft Technology IT Pro and Developer was just raised significantly. In my 2009 post on Microsoft making it too expensive for developers to experiment with Azure, I outlined how critical it is to make your products available to both current and future upcoming developers. Microsoft responded over the last few years by offering free Azure websites, reducing prices and offering improved MSDN offers. This has reduced the barrier to entry for Azure for developers, but Microsoft has now raised it for IT Pros and the enthusiast market.

According to Microsoft, evaluation versions of OSs will be available for download. I think that 90-180 day trials are very valuable but historically they have only been available for the latest products. Great if you want to try out Windows Server 2012 but not if you need to experiment with Windows Server 2008, which is a major flaw to this approach. Also short trial periods such as those found with client OSs are a real frustration. Virtual Labs are excellent for targeted training of specific features but are not a replacement for the real world experience of running a real instance.

But surely it’s all running in the cloud now anyway? Well perhaps in the future the idea of running servers locally will be a strange concept but we are a way yet from that being the norm. The Enterprise IT Pros and Developers of today and more importantly the near future will need to be skilled in running servers locally for some time to come. Running virtual servers in the cloud might be an option for some and may be the future but it’s expensive to do this currently and techies will not be exposed to those server maintenance activities that are abstracted away by cloud providers.

There is a large home server enthusiast community that will rely on TechNet to evaluate and run Windows Server products. This is a vibrant, active community and one that happily shares detailed technical knowledge with the wider world and feeds the Microsoft Technology communities. With the death of Windows Home Server, and now TechNet, these enthusiasts will now start to look for alternatives. There are by comparison plenty of non-Windows choices in this space (Linux/BSD).

The cost of a TechNet subscription seems to have dropped to a bargain price over the last few years, perhaps too low, and Microsoft could have gradually increased the price over the next few years to make it less attractive to those looking to avoid buying retail versions and yet continue as a mechanism for Microsoft enthusiastic techies to access Microsoft Operating Systems.

In summary I think that Microsoft have needlessly raised the barrier to entry for experimenting and learning Microsoft Technologies and makes alternative platforms more attractive. This move will in the long run surely push enthusiasts and young upcoming techies into the arms of Linux/BSD.

Just Do It !

nike-just-do-it1 Now I’m not a big fan of New Year’s Resolutions and in fact have the same one each year which I religiously stick to, which is to never make any New Years Resolutions. However whilst we are all in the spirit of renewed enthusiasm for the new year ahead I’d like to quote the great tag line of the Nike brand:

“Just do it!”

We all speak to people who have a great idea for the next big thing be it a concept for a new phone app, a great web site or a business idea that could make a fortune. For some it will always be just a vision in their head, some will get started but get distracted or bored, but very few will get their ideas off the ground. Be different, get that idea out of your head and into the real world because as Woody Allen said…

“80% of success is showing up!”

So if you have an idea, a domain name gathering dust or some half finished code lying around then either move on and forget it or do something about it. Even if it fails you’ll learn a lot along the way.

justdotit2 If the task seems just too big, then check out this excellent post by Jim Highsmith where he talks about just getting that project started and focusing on delivering value. For more ideas on getting started with just the bare minimum features then check out the the Minimal Viable Product (MVP) concept used by many start-ups.

Oh and don’t forget – if you become a millionaire on the back of this post, don’t forget me 🙂

My Current Technology Podcast Picks

I previously blogged how I value podcasts as I find them an excellent way to maximise the use of my daily commute time. I thought I’d provide an updated list of the technology related podcasts I subscribe to:

Have you got any other shows that you’d like to recommend, if so just leave a comment.

Podcasts on Software Development:

Podcasts on Technology:

Other Recommended Podcasts :

Technology:

Finance/Business:

Photography:

Movie News/Reviews: