Video tutorial or text

This is a human translation of the Catalan version.

At Mendeley we did a Web application to edit styles. It’s a complex topic, and we had to create some examples documenting how to use it.

We thought if we had to use text or some videos. I prefer text (HTML Web). I prefer it for who is doing it and for who uses it (in general, indeed).
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Vídeo tutorial o texte?

A Mendeley vàrem fer una aplicació Web per editar estils. El tema és complex, i cal documentació amb exemples i com fer-ho servir.

Ens plantejàvem si hauríem de fer text o bé vídeo. Jo prefereixo text (web amb HTML), tan per qui ho fa com per qui ho utilitza (clar, en general!).
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Indicacions caminant

Sempre em fan gràcia les indicacions a Anglaterra (estil al camp):
camins
No diu on va, ni d’on ve, ni distàncies…

Un cop, per culpa d’això, vaig estar caminant una bona estona al revés! 🙂 (això i un riu que girava de forma inesperada i després desapareixia).

Llibre electrònic (Kobo Glo)

Fa unes setmanes em vaig comprar un Kobo Glo, un llibre electrònic.

El vaig comprar perquè estava cansat de portar llibres de Catalunya a Anglaterra; per tenir diccionari quan llegeixo, per quan viatjo no haver de portar varis llibres (sempre és molest quan estic apunt d’acabar un llibre i n’agafo dos -més pes-, etc. etc.).
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Traduir textes? Revisar?

Fa temps vaig recomanar, des d’aquí, a alguns familiars. Com quan es recomanava algú al bar, però a Internet.

Bé, en aquell moment la novia del meu germà, l’Irene Solanich, encara no tenia Web… però ara ja fa mig any que sí: http://www.solanich.cat. Graduada en traducció i interpretació, si necessiteu algun servei de traducció o de revisió de texts aviseu-la (català, castellà, anglès, alemany…) aviseu-la! (o a mi i us poso en contacte, blog@pina.cat, o un comentari aquí…).

I no, ella no revisa ni tradueix coses d’aquest blog… però fa bona feina!

Somebody That I Used to Know: Acapella version

I really like this video:

Music visualization

At Mendeley, once a month, we have a hackday. I usually try to think something different to do, for example using our data or our Open-API in a different and new way. So far I’ve built one game, a screensaver, a file system… and also a music/sound generator!
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Two hard things in computer science


Two hard things in computer science: cache invalidation, naming things, and off-by-one errors.

I don’t know who is the original author, but I really like it.

Should we unit test trivial code?

Should we unit test trivial code?

A dilemma that I’ve had long time ago: should I unit test a very trivial code, with a very trivial unit test?
Answer: yes.

I remember that once I had a class which, in that moment, had only a getter and a setter. Something like:
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Experience attending to an unconference

A couple of weeks ago I went, for first time, to an unconference.

An unconference, like you can read on the Wikipedia, is a conference (or meeting?) without a schedule. In a nutshell: there is a “delegate” (like an organiser) who will book the venue, book some food and drinks, and will start the unconference asking everyone to present themselves and explain which are their favourite topics and area of expertise. Or, like it happened in the one that I attended, the delegate asked to write the title of talks that the attendants wanted to present.
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