I’m excited to announce that 8th Light has agreed to acquire WisdomGroup, the leading voice in Chicago’s vibrant Ruby community. This acquisition combines two powerful...more.
8th Light's software craftsmen are bonded together by their singular pursuit of mastery. We challenge ourselves constantly to learn and grow through a combination of...more.
Late last year, Reid Draper came to 8th Light University to give a keynote presentation on property-based testing in Clojure. Reid is a software developer...more.
In early October, Markus Gärtner visited 8th Light's Chicago office to give a presentation on "Testing With A Stranger" for an 8th Light University event....more.
After doing some research and seeing some pictures of Ghent, Belgium, I knew I had to go to ArrrrCamp. ArrrrCamp is a modern software developer’s...more.
As kids, we learned to listen and to speak before we learned to read. We started our lives cooing indecipherable nonsense, and slowly adopted the...more.
What does it mean to be a software craftsman? You can read the Manifesto for Software Craftsmanship and draw conclusions; but if you posed that...more.
I was privileged this past weekend to attend the SoCraTes (Software Craftsmanship and Testing) 2014 conference in Soltau, Germany. I've heard about this Software Craftsmanship...more.
Estimates are a fundamental part of our business. We rely on them to schedule our workflow and to communicate honestly and openly with clients. We...more.
In his recent post, Doug Bradbury claims that aiming for gender equality runs the risk of further homogenizing our culture. Instead, he suggests that we...more.
Last week, my co-worker Doug Bradbury posted on the 8th Light blog to ask about gender equality on programming teams. I've had some thoughts about...more.
I recently had the distinct pleasure of speaking with three aspiring software developers. They recently enrolled in a code school that helps facilitate their learning...more.
I used to ask a question when interviewing apprentice candidates that was designed to discover their passion: “When was the last time you stayed up...more.
Doug asked a couple of thought provoking questions in his recent blog post about gender equality: What is unique about women that make them not...more.
Throughout my childhood, I have strong memories of my mother, an IT professional, singing “Anything you can do, I can do better” (from the Irving...more.
What is Mindfulness? Mindfulness is an attentive awareness of the reality of things in the present moment. Learning how to be mindful brings the wisdom...more.
“The notion that ideas are worthy not merely because they 'solve our problems' — but because they challenge us with problems to which our lives...more.
If you've ever worked on a software development project under a time crunch, then you may have heard the phrase "mythical man month." This phrase...more.
You just found your dream home: it’s vastly spacious, a gym-sized pool with twin jacuzzis, a massive home-theater and game room, along with riverside boat...more.
I recently gave a talk about web typography titled “On Web Typography: Choosing (and Using) Fonts on Screen,” at Chicago’s first annual Tech Week conference....more.
This blog post doubles as my proposal for a talk I’d like to give at Software Craftsmanship 2011. The working title is “Front End Craftsmanship:...more.
At Agile 2010, I shared an airport shuttle bus with Henrik Kniberg and César Idrovo Carrillo, the organizers of the manifesto translation project. They told...more.
While there are a host of reasons to attend the Software Craftsmanship North America Conference, here’s a list of some of the best: The speaker...more.
Yesterday in my talk at RubyConf2008, I announced the commencement of the Ruby Battleship Sparring Tournament. This is an open tournament. All are welcome to...more.
Last week I attended Agile 2008 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was a fun, high energy conference. The highlight was a heated panel discussion at...more.
David Chelimsky has tagged me with this “chain-blog.” I have enjoyed reading other peoples’ stories and I thought I would take the time to share...more.
I gave a Chirb presentation last night on RubyCocoa, which went reasonably well. I’ve presented the slide here. Please be aware that the slides may...more.
Back at RubyConf 2007 I prepared a 1 minute presentation, well…more of a teaser, about an application framework called LimeLight. What is it? LimeLight is...more.
At Agile 2007, we put on a workshop called RailsFest. The original intent was to provide a one day session would allow attendees an opportunity...more.
Last night I presented the Ruby Statemachine Gem to the Chicago Ruby Users Group (Chirb) Below are links to download the slides and coding example...more.
