Pulling Back From Twitter
October 21, 2010 — 8 years agoLately I've been kind of rude or mean or angry or complainy or whiny generally un-good, on twitter. (Not all the time, mind you.) This isn't me. I'm a happy, optimistic, nice guy.
But I keep letting myself get sucked into Twitter beyond a point that I can handle. I do not care what anyone else had for breakfast, or what most people think of the Mac App Store, or who is playing Dallas, or any of this crap. On a daily basis, I just want a lot less noise.
In reality though, I'm the only one to blame for this. I started following everyone again. And I mean literally, everyone who looked even vaguely interesting. But on a daily basis, that's way too much for me to handle.
Don't get me wrong, though, I like to hear about new technology, best practices, etc.. you know, the kind of things you usually read about in books, but sometimes can't because the tech is so bleeding-edge, that kind of thing, among others. But that's a very small subset of my twitter stream, and I'm going to do what I can to filter it down to that.
So I'm going to pull back from twitter, both in reading and in writing. (That just leaves 'rithmetic!) If I stop following you, don't be offended. You're probably really nice, really. And I'm sure we'll still be friends. Feel free to email me or occasionally chat with me on IM... or how about that new FaceTime app I have? :)
About me
My name is Steven Degutis, and I've been writing software professionally for a decade. During that time, I've written many apps and websites, quite a few techical articles, and kept up-to-date with the rapidly evolving software industry.
If you have software needs for web, mobile, or desktop, and are looking for a seasoned software professional, please reach out to me at sbdegutis@gmail.com to set up a phone call.
Work Experience
- Self-employed – present
- Clean Coders – 5 years
- 8th Light – 2 years
- Big Nerd Ranch – 1 year
- Self-employed - 1 year
Platforms
- Web: full-stack
- iOS (UIKit)
- macOS (Cocoa)
- REST APIs
- AWS / EC2 / ELB
Languages
- JavaScript
- HTML5 / CSS
- Swift
- Objective-C
- Clojure
Frameworks
- Node.js
- Express.js
- React
- Vue.js
- Electron
Technical articles
Over the past decade, I've written a total of 169 technical articles on various programming languages, frameworks, best practices, and my own projects, as I kept up-to-date and active in the software industry.
Subscribe via RSS / Atom.
Featured
- 2017 — "Clean code" isn't actually clean
- 2017 — Passion in your field is overrated
- 2017 — What I learned in 5 days of writing an experimental website
- 2014 — Age of the Polyglot
- 2013 — How to Program
- 2013 — Ignore the Naysayers
- 2013 — Writing Clearly
- 2012 — Reinvent the wheel
- 2010 — Good usability
- 2009 — Twitter is the wrong tool
- 2009 — We're all pretty bad at driving
- 2008 — Why I Code
Chronological
2017
2016
2015
| March | Notes on Haskell Extensions |
| February | Second thoughts on front-end tools |
| February | First thoughts on front-end tools |
| February | Some thoughts on GUIs |
| February | First thoughts on OCaml |
| February | Ways to compile Haskell to JavaScript |
| February | First thoughts on Haskell |
2014
2013
2012
| September | Testing boundaries |
| April | Ruby Accessors Considered Pernicious |
| March | Reinvent the wheel |
2011
| September | Go interfaces and DIP |
| August | The future of Lisp |
2010
2009
2008
| December | Cocoa Development is like Bureaucracy |
| October | Why I Code |
| October | Open at Login, for menu-bar apps |
| October | NSLog(@"testing"); |
Portfolio
Here are some of the projects I'm most proud of. They were created using a variety of technologies, running on several different platforms and OSes. They're all finished products, and many of them are open source.
CleanCoders.com
Website - Online Video StoreI wrote this web store for Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin, using Clojure for the back-end, and JavaScript for the front-end. Over the course of 5 years, I took the site from a simple three-page website to a full enterprise-ready business solution, with nearly 100% test coverage.
- Clojure
- Datomic
- jQuery / D3.js
- JavaScript
- ClojureScript
Docks
macOS app - Dock UtilityI made Docks in 2009 for users who wanted to swap out icons in their Dock with a single click. Its unique functionality and design aesthetic attracted the attention of Apple, Engadget, MacWorld, and led to an acquisition of my start-up by Big Nerd Ranch.
- Apple.com Staff Pick
- MacWorld 4/5 Rating
- MacWorld Gem of the Year
- Featured on Engadget.com
Leviathan
macOS app - Clojure IDEWhile working on CleanCoders.com, a website written completely in Clojure, I increased my productivity by building a custom IDE for macOS designed specifically for Clojure projects.
- Objective-C
- Clojure
- C / C++
- Cocoa
- Themeable
Zephyros
macOS app - Hackable AutomationThis began as an experiment to see how many languages I could use to script a custom macOS window manager using our custom TCP protocol. Eventually it had bindings for Clojure, Ruby, Python, Go, JavaScript, CoffeeScript, Node.js, Chicken Sceme, and Racket, as well as other community additions.
- TCP / Unix sockets
- Custom protocol
- Highly Scriptable
- 10+ language bindings
- Open source community
Bubble Maker
iOS app - Bubble simulatorThis toy was made in a weekend to entertain my 1 year old daughter. It lets you create bubbles with your fingers, which then simulate physics by bumping into each other and falling.
- SpirteKit
- Custom art
- Physics simulation
- iOS
- tvOS
Quick List
iOS app - Todo list appWhen I couldn't find an app in the App Store that let me make very simple lists extremely quickly, I made one myself. I use it almost every day to organize and track my activities.
- In-app purchases
- Custom UI / UX
- Social media
- App Store artwork
- Spring animations
sdegutis.com
Website - Personal PortfolioThis very site itself was written from scratch in about a day. It uses best practices for modern responsive web design, and a custom build phase to compile the sources into a single HTML file.
- Node.js
- Pug / Jade
- LessCSS
- HTML5
- WebSockets
2048
Java app - GameThe game 2048 (created by Gabriele Cirulli) is so fun that my kids wanted their own copy. So I wrote this version in Java 8, using JavaFx for attractive graphics and silky smooth animations.
- Java 8
- JavaFx
- Modular code
- Customizable
- Animations
Mjolnir
macOS app - Window ManagerI created this app to increase my productivity by letting me move windows around in macOS using keyboard shortcuts. It grew into a community-driven highly extensible app, using Lua for its plugin system.
- Objective-C
- Embedded Lua
- Plugin system
- Fully documented
- 5,000 GitHub stars
AffluentConfidante.com
Website - Social NetworkImplementing this elite social network gave me experience integrating both Apple Pay and credit card payments (via Stripe.com) seamlessly into web apps, for a frictionless and pain-free payment experience.
- Clojure
- Elastic Beanstalk
- PostgreSQL
- Stripe.com
- Apple Pay
HyperChat
Website - Live ChatroomThis isn't just any chatroom. In this web app, you can see what everyone is typing while they type it. I made this in order to scratch my itch for making real-time apps and games, and learned how to use WebSockets in the process.
- JavaScript
- WebSockets
- Node.js
- Vue.js
- CSS
Bahamut
macOS app - Music PlayerAs iTunes went through many user interface changes, I wanted an app that was consistent, intuitive, and easy to use. So I created Bahamut, a minimal music player for macOS with a custom user interface.
- Objective-C
- Custom UI
- Cocoa
- Core Data
- AVFoundation
Chatter
macOS app - Chat (IRC) ClientThis was written in 2009, before the time of Slack, when IRC was the main way for programmers to get short-term assistance from each other. Its purpose was to be a beautiful app with an emphasis on simplicity and usability over technical power.
- Async networking
- Core Animation
- Core Text
- IRC Protocol
- UI Design
AppGrid
macOS app - Window ManagerThis is an app I actually use every single day. It lets you move windows with global keyboard shortcuts. Since it uses Vim-like key bindings, it should feel pretty natural to any programmer. There's no configuration needed; it Just Works™.
- Minimalist UI
- Simple UI
- Vim-like Hotkeys
- Global Hotkeys
- Zero-configuration
Hydra
macOS app - Lua window managerAs an evolution of Phoenix, Hydra was my first attempt at embedding a full Lua virtual machine into an Objective-C app, to make a lightweight and efficient window manager that focused on speed, low memory usage, low CPU usage, and overall being gentle on laptop batteries.
- Embedded Lua
- Generated docs
- Lightweight
- Memory efficient
- CPU efficient
Phoenix
macOS app - JavaScript window managerAs an evolution of Zephyros, Phoenix was my attempt to use Cocoa's native JavaScript bindings to make a more lightweight and efficient window manager, that focused on speed, low memory usage, low CPU usage, and overall being gentle on laptop batteries.
- JavaScriptCore
- JavaScript API
- Lightweight
- Memory efficient
- CPU efficient
Smaller projects
These may be tiny, but they're interesting technical feats.
| Lua4Swift | Swift framework for embedding Lua with a native Swift API. |
| choose | Command line fuzzy-matching tool for macOS that uses a GUI |
| music | Command line music daemon for macOS that only speaks JSON |
| hecto | Command line text editor with an embedded Lua plugin system |
| ZephSharp | Window manager for Windows using Clojure for scripting |
| management | Minimalist EC2 configuration & deployment tool in Ruby. |
| go.assert | Assertion helper package for writing tests in Go. |
| go.shattr | Go library for printing shell-attributed strings to stdout. |
| OCDSpec2 | Objective-C based testing framework with Xcode integration. |