Pitfalls working with jitpack

If you work with java or the JVM a lot, you're probably familiar with build tools like maven, Gradle and the like. These are all backed by some variety of Central repository where the tools search for and retrieve dependencies usually such as Maven central. However, publishing artifacts

Why automated recruitment tools fail

It's no secret I've been on the job hunt for a couple of weeks now. The hunt for a great team to work with is as much a challenge for me as it is for companies. Recruiters are supposed to somehow help relieve frustration on both

Accident analysis: US Airways Flight 1549

Abstract An Airbus A320-214 experienced an almost complete loss of thrust in both engines. The aircraft was subsequently ditched on the Hudson River approximately 8.5 miles from the site of its departure. Of the 150 passengers and 5 crew members on board the flight, the majority of people on

How to get IDEA to detect kotlin generated sources using Gradle

So I recently got my hands on Kotlin and it's been great so far. However one of the things that the IDEA kotlin plugin doesn't do[1] is detect the kapt folder which contains any sources generated from annotation processing. This can be fixed using the

Hands on with Machinarium

I love indie games. They give me a break from big AAA titles by providing small but well-developed experiences. They tend to be sincere expressions of what game developers "want" to create without having to bend to the will of big publishers only concerned about the bottom line[

Git gud - Talk write up

I recently gave a talk at the TTU geeky weekly on Git SCM[1]. It gave a general overview of SCM, basic features of git as a SCM tool and a little about the git internals. Thanks in part to the IEEE and special thanks to the event organizers. The

Is Kanye Zipfy?

I came across an interesting tool over the weekend. Kanye rest is a quick hack that a couple of students over in Manchester put together over a long weekend[1]. It's a fully Restful API that has some pretty interesting endpoints[1:1]. For example, the album endpoint

Quick tip: Quickly parse and filter data with regex find and replace

Dealing with data is sometimes a pain in the rear end. It typically comes full of unwanted extras that can be a pain to filter out by hand. One of the most common ways of dealing with this is to write some kind of script which is time consuming or

Trying out BASIC

A little while ago, Usborne released some of their classic 80s programming books for free[1]. While it may not a have been a complete collection, it's still pretty cool to be able to experience such an elegant piece of computer science history. The books were aimed at

Automate programming the MSP430 Launchpad on Linux using Expect

Programming and debugging the MSP430 on Windows is a bit of a straight forward affair. You simply install the Code Composer Studio (CCS) integrated development environment (IDE) and in a few minutes you are ready to go. On Linux systems however, there is a little bit of work involved[1]