Leon Gersing: Archive

3 tags

Permission granted

I don’t know what it is with my generation in America these days but I find myself acting like a broken record. Reminding folks of the same things over and over again. I decided to make it simple and share it with you now. There is no one to gain permission from. There is no one to impress. There is only you… now. The common response when I ask what someone is doing is “well, I’m...

May 21st

6 notes

3 tags

Love - CodeMash 2012 Pecha Kucha Slides

For those who requested the slides from my Pecha Kucha talk at CodeMash 2012, here you go. All rights for photos belong to their perspective holders. For those I could not find copyright info, please feel free to get in touch and I’ll provide full credit as required by your licenses. Thanks! Leon link:...

Jan 18th

4 notes

Oct 24th

71 notes

My Perception of CoffeeScript

CoffeeScript is something that I’ve watched for a very long time and my first attempt at using it in a project was early in its development and while I wanted to commit patches, reading some of the conversation around the purpose and overall goals made me realize that I simply see JavaScript differently than the author (Jeremy Ashkenas, whom I do not know but would LOVE to have a drink with...

Oct 17th

4 notes

11 tags

Oct 6th

30 notes

tumblrbot asked: WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE INANIMATE OBJECT?

Aug 30th

2 tags

Software Dogma

“Don’t try and bend the spoon. That’s impossible. Instead try and realize the truth… There is no spoon. Then you see that it is not the spoon that bends, it’s only yourself.” Jim has a new blog post that solidified a few of my own thoughts on the age old saying I hear bandied about over and over at software conferences: “You can change where you work or you...

Aug 26th

2 notes

Kickstarter - Theater Town: A Documentary about a... →

Mitch’s documentary looks amazing. I can’t wait to see how it comes out!

Jul 2nd

ftw →

Jun 26th

On Code etc.: 0 to application in a day, with... →

I just saw this today and loved it. Enjoy. Web frameworks are a dime a dozen these days, and they all promise to deliver enormous productivity boosts without limiting your creativity. The darker side of it is that while they often allow you to create applications very quickly, sometimes they make it pretty hard to…

May 3rd

39 notes

Apr 4th

This just in: Nerds are Mad at the iPad!!!!

I love how a device that no one has really used has caused such a rift in the geek/nerd/tech/yawn universe. So, I’m going to weigh in…. I remember when Apple came out with the Macbook Air and nerds were up in arms over that because of the price. It was under powered by their stupid, nonsensical standards. You know what happened? People who travel a lot and need a computer that...

Apr 3rd

Anti Patterns Catalog

Anti Patterns Catalog: ” Anti Patterns Catalog ‘Catalog’ is a technical term in the PatternCommunity: a list of patterns is called a catalog. This catalog lists...

Mar 17th

Mar 10th

77 notes

Mar 7th

Sooooooooooo tired. And bored. Gnoght.

Mar 7th

"You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood...

‘You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.’ - Winston Churchill (Via Minimal.)

Jan 24th

The CodeMash Precompiler Part 0

I’ve had several interested friends ask about “how the precompiler” went. As the acting Iteration Manager I can say that it exceeded my every expectation but what does that “mean”. Well I’m going to be compiling the information that was collected from the event and putting it into a case study for a team of 50 developers, whom only half of which were familiar...

Jan 17th

iPhone and Android Development - NOT STARTING A...

Perception is truly reality. The way we see the world shapes how we look to solve problems. It’s with that grain of salt that I offer up this response to Mr. @JonathanPenn’s tweet to substantiate my claims on the interwebs this morning. Boy, I hate getting into these messes but he’s right to call me out and clarify. Here’s our convo: With that history you must know...

Dec 28th

1 note

Lessons from Uncle Bob

Those of you who were fortunate enough to hear Uncle Bob Martin speak at Columbus Ruby Brigade last Monday are aware of the amount of wisdom that can be garnered from listening to him. If that is the case then certainly pair programming with him for the day would be equally enlightening. Monday morning when I walked into the EdgeCase offices there in a corner was a face that I was familiar with...

Dec 23rd

JavaScript Part 5 - The Client Side

So, if JavaScript ever really had a true intention, I believe that intention was to bring static HTML documents to life. I’m sure if we read the history since 1995 (give or take a year) then we’ll notice that most work with JavaScript was aimed at giving the static web a much needed shot in the arm. To understand how JavaScript works its magic we have to dive into the DOM or Document...

Dec 20th

1 note

JavaScript Part 4 - the "this" operator

OK, take a deep breath, hold your nose and get ready to finally understand this. When my friends first dive into JavaScript the this operator throws people for a major curve. To really understand what it is I’m going to try my best to distill its essence into a simple explanation that while not fully encompassing the nuances of “this” use should go along way to helping you...

Dec 16th

JavaScript Part 3 - Prototype Based Language

For a few years the alpha geek crowd has been debating (read: justifying their own preferences) what type of Object Oriented Language features are the most developer friendly. I never have the heart to remind these folks that everyone experiences the world differently and some will always understand class based OO and others want something else. Well, one of those “something else” is...

Dec 16th

JavaScript Part 1 - hello JavaScript!

JavaScript is an object oriented scripting language. It is a dialect of the ECMAScript standard. It is dynamic, loose typed and prototype-based. It has first-class functions. That means a function is an object in JavaScript. You can treat it as such. If you’re looking for some history of the language and an introduction of the “why” check out Mozilla’s A...

Dec 16th

JavaScript Part 2 - The Free Stuff

This is a tough one. I don’t generally like to discuss the built in objects of a language because they are easily searched for. Instead I’ll list a few and then talk about using them as that’s a little more subjective and worthy of discussion and continual review. Quick Reference: Types Numbers Strings Booleans (true|false) Objects undefined and null Special...

Dec 16th

Cucumber intro

Well, I’ve had a few requests for the slides on this one. So, without further adieu, I present the slides for my cucumber introduction. I will also be presenting this topic at CodeMash in January and the Cleveland Ruby Brigade on 11/30/09. So, stop on by and let’s talk BDD in person.

Nov 25th

Re: "It's OK not to unit test" or what you do on...

Read this. Don’t skim, read the whole thing. Then come back here. I have a thought that I wish to express here and it may be controversial to some. You’ve been warned. The issue in this cashto’s blog entry hovers mostly around platform and language. Simply put, unit testing is the art of testing small units of code. In Test Driven Development you do not write new code until...

Nov 5th

2 notes

My jQuery talk for the MVC firestarter

Hey, if you would like to follow along today during my 1:00 talk please feel free. If you missed it, here are the slides, I’ll publish the code samples some other time.

Oct 17th

Goodbye, Twitter

Twitter has done more harm to my emotional state than it has ever done good. The good is that for people that I really enjoy communicating with I get insight into their lives and what they are into. Twitter was a place that helped me find EdgeCase and for that I’m grateful but one good thing and n+1 arguments, well, it’s not balance. The bad part is that sometimes you do not want a...

Oct 16th

Because I'm lazy... Fundamentals of OOP in C#

Here you go friends, I’m sorry this took soooooo long but it’s up. Fundamentals of OOP in C# :) Please to enjoy!

Oct 6th

The Leon Gersing over-exposure tour continues!

If there is such a thing as over exposure, then I’m experiencing it at the moment. So, please try to bear with me and I’ll do my best to keep from jumping the shark. For those interested here’s a list of some shows that feature me. Also, a few notices of where I’ll be speaking in the near future, please drop by and let’s chat! :) David Giard’s Technology and...

Sep 17th

Value and Money are not the same.

It’s difficult in the U.S. to really understand value. The value of a hard day’s work. The value of a hug. The value of trust. The value of the qualitative. When commoners in the middle to lower classes in America debate politics they do so in an aimless, impotent fashion that allows them to build fortresses of self perpetuating plausible deniability. Instead of understanding issues...

Aug 2nd

Apple's Google Voice Fail.

Look, I’m no pundit. I’m just a developer trying to do right by the world. When giant corporate entities start pissing all over one another I could usually care less. The PC vs Mac debate, for instance, is something I never really cared about. I don’t prefer the Windows OS. I prefer OS X. That’s a preference not a condemnation of Windows. I develop on/for windows machines,...

Aug 2nd

2 notes

Coming to a town near you... ME!

Ok, kittens, I’m fixin to get my speak on. Recently, given my move to becoming a professional rubyist, I’ve shifted my speaking to be on topics more relevant to topic that are closer to my heart and closer aligned with my day to day operations and growing expertise. With that and by the grace of my wonderful EdgeCase family I’ve taken a larger step into the Ruby presenting...

Jul 24th

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

Jul 19th

ingridmichaelson: New Song Demo- Walk Away ...

Jul 2nd

269 notes

Official Google Blog: Mowing with goats →

May 3rd

Since everyone else is talking about it...

It’s Sunday. I’m looking through my RSS feeds enjoying the sun on my face and listening to Dire Straits thinking about an old girlfriend, Brenna, when it hits me. People really have their drawers matted to their ‘taints about the dude, Matt, who did a talk about CouchDB. I’ve come to some conclusions too regarding this event that I’d like to share. I get it. Some...

May 3rd

"Don't be a plumber" is horrible advice.

I’m pretty sure that this can’t be a ubiquitous phrase across platforms and doing some searching as revealed that perhaps this is a regionalism that has, for better or worse, infected the .net community. The phrase is “Don’t be a plumber” and it’s meant to say, don’t waste your time building something that someone else may have already built for you. ...

Apr 20th

Men have got to do better.

I tend to be a gregarious person. I’m ok talking with new people, even those with differing opinions and personalities. I enjoy meeting people. The thing I find discouraging about people’s “outward” personas, especially men but not limited to them, is the objective of fitting in. The way that many will try to fit in is to belittle those around them. They mistake...

Apr 19th

Central Ohio Day of .NET

Hell yeah!!! I’m going to be there talking about JavaScript! So, go, let’s have a beer and enjoy ourselves through the wonderful art of communication. I’m not shy but I can easily become distracted so if I haven’t found you and said hi, make sure to find me and say hi! Man, I’m soooo stoked!!!!

Apr 17th

Watch

this is one of my favorite songs… ever. I just learned it on the uke.

Apr 13th

Size Matters

There’s a common question that’s asked when there’s an event I’m speaking at. The question is “will this work for large development groups” or some variation on that phrase. The question is an interesting one because I almost always reply with “Of course it does”. The notion of TDD MUST scale, right? Right?! Over the years, I’ve come to...

Mar 24th

Hyperspaces FTW!

So, if you’re a mac user and you’ve got 12 bucks laying around and you think that the “spaces” feature in Leopard leaves a little to be desired well then you’re in luck. you can get a fully functional version of the app during the MacHeist3 event and if you love it, just buy a damn license and enjoy the awesomeness. Here’s some linkage for my rambling… ...

Mar 3rd

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Death Cab For Cutie :: Media

Mar 2nd

Trying out MarsEdit again

Well, now that I’ve officially gone off the custom weblog application kool-aid, I’ve decided to see what native apps out there have to offer. An app that I’ve tried before (years before Red Sweater got it) was MarsEdit. It was always one of my favorite mac apps, really simple, easy to use, etc. I suppose my complaint was that I always made my admin pages simple and I never...

Mar 1st

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A conversation with Sophia.

Feb 26th

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Sophie shines!

Feb 26th