Twinkle Toes Software – Looking back on my first year
Wow, it’s been a year since I founded Twinkle Toes Software. I thought this would be a good time for me to stop and reflect a bit on how its going and what I’ve learned. The Zero Entry Pool Approach Am I a “zero-entry” entrepreneur? I’m sure there are countless ways to approach starting a…
Booked 2.5.9 release and some details about 2.6
Booked 2.5.9 was released earlier this week. I’ll wait while you go grab it. If you subscribe to our hosting service, you’re already updated. As far as minor releases go, this was a biggie. Some frequently requested features finally made it in, like showing custom attributes on reports, more options for what to show in…
Software Development is Expensive
This is a bit of a rant, so I apologize ahead of time. Software development is a crazy blend of art, science and luck. I’ve compared it to painting in the past and I still think that’s one of the better comparisons out there. It is difficult to build a software application that solves a…
Are You Mentoring or Lecturing?
Great team leaders raise the skill level of people around them. There are so many ways to do this – team presentations, sharing articles, demonstrations, etc. Mentoring is one of the most personal and powerful ways of developing individuals on your teams. Unfortunately, this term gets tossed around freely without really understanding it. To the…
Does your manager know how to code?
Who cares? Can you manage people? I used to think that a good manager could come from any background. Hell, I’ve had some incredible managers that have never written a single line of code. But as a full time manager of software developers I’m starting to think that a background in development does matter. I…
Give me a topic for a post!
I have a wide variety of topics that I would love to write about, but I want to hear what you’re looking for. Do you want articles about using or administering Booked? Do you want to hear about my journey launching Twinkle Toes Software? How about being part of an agile team, or the broader…
Checking out Entreprogrammers
Update (10/28/2019) In light of one of the podcaster’s disgusting behavior, I no longer support anything he produces. Original post (6/6/14) When I decided to start my own company last year I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Turns out, it’s a lot of work. 🙂 Aside from being a developer, I also need to…
Software Development is Like…
Software development is complex and difficult and unlike most other professions that I know of. This makes it tough to explain to colleagues in other parts of the organization, clients, and (all too often) management. We’ll typically try to find something well understood to use as a basis for comparison. Something to help explain the…
Love Your Code
Me and Code, we had something special. Like all new relationships, this one started out with the best of intentions. Although, I suppose we both knew it couldn’t last forever. Looking back I realize that I didn’t support Code the way I should have. The kind of support that could only be fulfilled by unit…
We’re Officially Booked!
A New Name It’s been many months since the last phpScheduleIt release and a lot has happened since then. The biggest change is that I decided to rename the project to Booked. I’ve never been completely happy with the previous name and received a lot of feedback about it. I landed on Booked because it…