https://justinzimmerman.net/post/ Recent content in Posts on Justin Zimmerman Hugo -- gohugo.io en-us justin.richard.zimmerman@gmail.com (Justin Zimmerman) justin.richard.zimmerman@gmail.com (Justin Zimmerman) (c) 2019 Justin Zimmerman. Tue, 18 Oct 2016 08:19:39 -0400 https://justinzimmerman.net/post/cli-testing-golang/ Tue, 18 Oct 2016 08:19:39 -0400 justin.richard.zimmerman@gmail.com (Justin Zimmerman) https://justinzimmerman.net/post/cli-testing-golang/ Writing unit tests for Go (Golang) CLIs A majority of my background has been developing web applications. I’ve recently changed teams at work to a team that is primarily focused on building a CLI. Writing tests in Go is a relatively simple process, especially coming from JavaScript where you need multiple modules, and lots of code before you even begin writing tests. The testing package has most everything you need for writing unit tests. https://justinzimmerman.net/post/bestrida/ Sun, 04 Sep 2016 09:45:50 -0400 justin.richard.zimmerman@gmail.com (Justin Zimmerman) https://justinzimmerman.net/post/bestrida/ I recently published Bestrida to the iOS app store for my submission to the 2016 Strava Developer Challenge. Here is a brief overview of the application. Strava.com is a popular and widely used website and mobile app that over one million cyclists and runners use to track their activity via GPS. Whenever you go for a run or ride your bike, Strava will track and store your activity and provide you with useful statistics. https://justinzimmerman.net/post/switching-from-bash-to-zsh/ Mon, 01 Aug 2016 09:33:10 -0400 justin.richard.zimmerman@gmail.com (Justin Zimmerman) https://justinzimmerman.net/post/switching-from-bash-to-zsh/ I recently switched from BASH (Bourne Again SHell) to ZSH after hearing about z shell’s many benefits. The main benefits for me were better autocompletion, and file globbing, and better autocorrection. I spent quite a few weekends doing research on whether to switch or not, and finally I bit the bullet. Installing ZSH with Homebrew While this isn’t necessary, it’s incredibly straightforward to do. The default version of ZSH shipped with OSX is 5. https://justinzimmerman.net/post/switching-from-iterm-to-hyperterm/ Sat, 23 Jul 2016 20:12:34 -0400 justin.richard.zimmerman@gmail.com (Justin Zimmerman) https://justinzimmerman.net/post/switching-from-iterm-to-hyperterm/ Recently zeit.co released to the world a wonderful terminal built with JavaScript / HTML / CSS called Hyper. Even better yet, this terminal is fully customizable with open source plugins. I’m not one to change my development environment constantly, but this electron app was simple to install on OSX and even easier to customize programmatically. My hope is to demo how simple it is to get started with Hyper terminal, and show how I only added a few lines to the configuration file to have a terminal I enjoy to use. https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-week-12/ Sun, 10 Jan 2016 10:05:17 -0400 justin.richard.zimmerman@gmail.com (Justin Zimmerman) https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-week-12/ The realization that Week 12 has finally come to an end is definitely bitter-sweet. I have spent over 11 hours a day for the past 12 weeks learning Full-Stack Software Engineering. While I am looking forward getting back to a regular sleep schedule, I have learned more than I could imagine, and met many amazing people along the way. Week 12 consisted of finalizing resumes, creating cover letters, and preparing for the job search ahead. https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-week-11/ Sun, 03 Jan 2016 08:27:56 -0400 justin.richard.zimmerman@gmail.com (Justin Zimmerman) https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-week-11/ With our product, Bestrida, to MVP (Minimum Viable Product) we will continue to improve our MVP features, as well as the look and feel of product, for the remainder of the week. Design Our product finally received a much needed design overhaul, and we are definitely happy with the result: Stretch Goals As you can see in the above image, we are able to pull from the Strava API segment effort data for the user to view additional metrics on how well they performed during their effort. https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-week-10/ Sun, 20 Dec 2015 20:42:22 -0400 justin.richard.zimmerman@gmail.com (Justin Zimmerman) https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-week-10/ With Thesis moving along very nicely, here is what happened in week 10! Authentication One of the challenges faced this week during thesis is removing API keys from the client side. With a mobile application, you should consider all of your code accessible for the world to see. This would allow for any user to view your API’s secret key allowing other user’s to make (potentially) malicious requests to the API. https://justinzimmerman.net/post/on-whiteboarding-triggers/ Sun, 13 Dec 2015 10:37:06 -0400 justin.richard.zimmerman@gmail.com (Justin Zimmerman) https://justinzimmerman.net/post/on-whiteboarding-triggers/ I will be the first to admit, I struggle in whiteboarding situations, especially in the context of technical interviewing when triggers arise. I hope this post helps you become better at whiteboarding when these certain triggers occur. I have recognized that there are two types of triggers that happen while whiteboarding. The first trigger is an interpersonal trigger that I will call a “spiraling” trigger. The next is an external trigger that I will call a “questioning” trigger. https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-week-09/ Sun, 13 Dec 2015 09:50:22 -0400 justin.richard.zimmerman@gmail.com (Justin Zimmerman) https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-week-09/ Week 9 is finished at Hack Reactor, and thesis projects are in full swing! While there aren’t many things on the schedule, thesis is all about trying to build the best product in the 3 short weeks you have dedicated to it. Thesis To start, this is a perfect summary of life during thesis: Have no fear, little buddy. While building a product can feel this way sometimes, I am having an awesome time learning and problem solving to create the best app we can possibly produce. https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-week-08/ Sun, 06 Dec 2015 09:13:49 -0400 justin.richard.zimmerman@gmail.com (Justin Zimmerman) https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-week-08/ Legacy Project After the greenfield project last week, the next exercise was picking another group’s greenfield project to build upon. The idea of this exercise is actually well founded, the majority of Software Engineers are going to work on developing new features or debugging ‘legacy’ code, or known as code you haven’t seen before. I really enjoyed working on Seamless, the greenfield project my group decided to take on. The foundation of seamless was solid, it was a basic vanilla JavaScript application, that resized an image using a seam-carving algorithm. https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-week-07/ Sun, 22 Nov 2015 09:13:41 -0400 justin.richard.zimmerman@gmail.com (Justin Zimmerman) https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-week-07/ Week 7 was the first week of “project phase” in Hack Reactor. We will go through 6 weeks of group work to become better engineers in team environments. Greenfield The term greenfield comes from the engineering world, to refer to a blank slate, a “green field” ready to be built upon. This was my first experience working with a team of four to complete a functioning project. While I greatly enjoyed working in a team environment, there were a few hiccups that we encountered and have learned from along the way. https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-week-06/ Sun, 15 Nov 2015 09:13:25 -0400 justin.richard.zimmerman@gmail.com (Justin Zimmerman) https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-week-06/ Week 6 at Hack Reactor is when curriculum starts to shift from small “sprints” to the larger project phase. For the first time at Hack Reactor, we were given a React.js sprint! After the React.js sprint we had two days to create our MVP projects. At the end of the week, we had the dreaded hiring assessment. React.js This was probably one of my favorite sprints thus far. Using React to manage state, we created a jukebox application that leverages the SoundCloud API. https://justinzimmerman.net/post/geolocation-on-page-load/ Thu, 12 Nov 2015 10:31:44 -0400 justin.richard.zimmerman@gmail.com (Justin Zimmerman) https://justinzimmerman.net/post/geolocation-on-page-load/ While building Geotinerary, I wanted the map to zoom relatively close to the users location. Surprisingly enough, this was quite hard to find an example of. HTML5 and IPs Traditionally, when a webpage wants your location, we use the native HTML5. While this isn’t a terrible idea and can have much more accurate results, there is another method to find your users location that doesn’t require the use of HTML5 geolocation, the users IP address. https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-week-05/ Sun, 08 Nov 2015 09:12:55 -0400 justin.richard.zimmerman@gmail.com (Justin Zimmerman) https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-week-05/ With another week completed, week 5 has been extremely interesting. The topics this week included authentication, and deployment, along with introductions to MongoDB and Angular. Authentication As we all know, security is a pivotal part of development. Authentication is the act of verifying that your user is actually who they say they are. This verification normally includes a username and password. When that password is passed to the server we then return a token for return authentication requests. https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-week-04/ Sun, 01 Nov 2015 08:58:08 -0400 justin.richard.zimmerman@gmail.com (Justin Zimmerman) https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-week-04/ In Hack Reactor, week 4 is a pivotal time where the training wheels start to come off. Much of the sprints until week 4 have had for the most part very structured tests that held your hand through most of the sprints. Week 4 starts to look quite different! During week 4 we took a walk through server-side or what is also called back-end concepts. We specifically focused on using node, server side concepts such as the client-server model, and databases. https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-week-03/ Sun, 25 Oct 2015 08:50:09 -0400 justin.richard.zimmerman@gmail.com (Justin Zimmerman) https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-week-03/ Welcome to week 3! This has been an awesome week for discovering web application architecture. We began the week creating a chat application that focused on front end development. During the middle of the week we began to take a deeper dive into web application architecture using backbone.js. And the final sprint of the week included another dive into backbone.js but using CoffeeScript to write the application, rather than Javascript. https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-week-02/ Sun, 18 Oct 2015 10:03:28 -0400 justin.richard.zimmerman@gmail.com (Justin Zimmerman) https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-week-02/ Week 2 is over already, what a great time it has been! I was able to settle in this week and make progress on some awesome projects. Inheritance Patterns The beginning of week 2 focused on JavaScript inheritance patterns. We discussed the pros and cons of functional classes, functional-shared classes, prototypal classes, and psuedoclassical classes. nQueens If you don’t know about this problem, check it out! It’s an especially fun logic puzzle, where you have to test for a given amount of queens, on an (n x n) chessboard, how many solutions can you find? https://justinzimmerman.net/post/create-a-static-page-on-a-digital-ocean-droplet/ Thu, 15 Oct 2015 09:48:08 -0400 justin.richard.zimmerman@gmail.com (Justin Zimmerman) https://justinzimmerman.net/post/create-a-static-page-on-a-digital-ocean-droplet/ I currently use Digital Ocean to host my ghost blog. This has a been a very fun adventure, allowing me to learn the “ins and outs” of linux server administration. What if we want to add a new static page? Using a ghost blog is very easy and simple, but what if we want to add our projects to our site? This takes a little bit of work. After we copy our files onto our server, we want open the Ghost nginx file using: nano /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ghost https://justinzimmerman.net/post/ubuntu-server-configuration/ Thu, 15 Oct 2015 08:55:24 -0400 justin.richard.zimmerman@gmail.com (Justin Zimmerman) https://justinzimmerman.net/post/ubuntu-server-configuration/ Below is a listing of important tasks to complete after spinning up your Ubuntu server. SSH login as root You should have added an ssh key to the instance during creation. SSH into the instance as root with ssh root@server_ip_address Update server to latest patches sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get upgrade Optionally to uninstall old packages sudo apt-get autoremove Create a new user adduser user_name Assign root permission to new user gpasswd -a user_name sudo https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-week-01/ Sun, 11 Oct 2015 09:37:44 -0400 justin.richard.zimmerman@gmail.com (Justin Zimmerman) https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-week-01/ This is it! The first week at Hack Reactor, and what an awesome experience it has been. We started the first day with an introduction to the program, touched on both our expectations and the expectations of Hack Reactor, and did a review “sprint” on recursion. Sprints are short projects often worked on with a pair, this is at the core of Hack Reactor’s teaching style and philosophy. Recursion Recursion is a technique for solving problems where a function makes calls to itself. https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-week-00/ Mon, 05 Oct 2015 09:19:42 -0400 justin.richard.zimmerman@gmail.com (Justin Zimmerman) https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-week-00/ It’s finally that time! After completing the pre-course work, I start my journey with Hack Reactor today. I plan to write on a weekly basis about the new topics covered, and what was focused on during my time here at Hack Reactor. During the pre-course we focused on gaining a firm understanding of web development technologies such as HTML, CSS, and jQuery. Programming concepts such as scope, execution contexts, objects, and recursion were discussed in great length. https://justinzimmerman.net/post/installing-postgis-and-qgis-using-homebrew/ Sat, 22 Aug 2015 10:29:42 -0400 justin.richard.zimmerman@gmail.com (Justin Zimmerman) https://justinzimmerman.net/post/installing-postgis-and-qgis-using-homebrew/ After browsing the web and seeing outdated information for installing GIS software, I wanted to document the steps I took to install all the required software to get up and running using Homebrew: Installing Homebrew Be sure to have xcode installed from Apple xcode-select --install Copy this code a paste into your terminal to download and install Homebrew: ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)" Installing PostGIS First, using Homebrew install PostgreSQL: https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-remote-prep-week-4/ Mon, 10 Aug 2015 07:48:39 -0400 justin.richard.zimmerman@gmail.com (Justin Zimmerman) https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-remote-prep-week-4/ Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 Just like that, the four week course is at an end. I have really enjoyed the opportunity to learn such a large amount of material in such a short time. This has definitely been a great learning experience for me. If you are considering going to Hack Reactor, then this course will really show you what you’re getting in to. https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-remote-prep-week-3/ Sun, 02 Aug 2015 07:43:11 -0400 justin.richard.zimmerman@gmail.com (Justin Zimmerman) https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-remote-prep-week-3/ Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 I cannot believe we have already completed 3 weeks of class! I have learned a considerable amount along the way. Here are some of the topics that were covered this week. Functions Now we are getting into the good stuff. Functions are one of the most critical tools for any good JavaScript programmer. We discussed creating functions, invoking functions, and storing functions as variables. https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-remote-prep-week-2/ Sat, 25 Jul 2015 09:42:11 -0400 justin.richard.zimmerman@gmail.com (Justin Zimmerman) https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-remote-prep-week-2/ Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 Another week completed already! With the end of week 2 brings the close to the first half of the class. At the end of each class, the instructors give a survey to determine if you feel ‘behind pace,’ ‘on pace,’ or ‘ahead of pace.’ While I still feel I am in the ‘ahead of pace’ category, I have been learning quite a bit! https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-remote-prep-week-1/ Sun, 19 Jul 2015 20:42:20 -0400 justin.richard.zimmerman@gmail.com (Justin Zimmerman) https://justinzimmerman.net/post/hack-reactor-remote-prep-week-1/ Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 I am fortunate enough to be in the first Hack Reactor Remote Prep class! The course is 4 weeks long, meeting 5 days a week for 3 hours. The class time has flown by, and I have been able to work and get to know a majority of my classmates! I had wondered what it would be like to pair program remotely with people, and I honestly think it is just as good as if the person was sitting beside you. https://justinzimmerman.net/post/since-my-last-hack-reactor-interview/ Sun, 28 Jun 2015 09:57:47 -0400 justin.richard.zimmerman@gmail.com (Justin Zimmerman) https://justinzimmerman.net/post/since-my-last-hack-reactor-interview/ There are a multitude of things I have done since my last Hack Reactor interview to better prepare for the next interview. I have continued to study the beginning of Eloquent JavaScript (especially rereading Chapter 5). I changed over my Wordpress blog to Ghost! This has allowed me to learn a lot of server side linux and briefly touch on handlebars.js. I helped my wife set up her own Ghost blog! https://justinzimmerman.net/post/updating-feature-coordinates/ Fri, 08 May 2015 08:45:13 -0400 justin.richard.zimmerman@gmail.com (Justin Zimmerman) https://justinzimmerman.net/post/updating-feature-coordinates/ I was asked to update the location of manhole points with new survey data. Traditionally this is a long task, dragging the old manholes to their new locations. Before we assume how it would be so much easier to just delete the old data, and import the new data. First we have to consider all the attribute information associated with the data, sure we can join based on the Manhole ID but what happens when we have to worry about attachments? https://justinzimmerman.net/post/turf-js/ Tue, 10 Mar 2015 08:51:45 -0400 justin.richard.zimmerman@gmail.com (Justin Zimmerman) https://justinzimmerman.net/post/turf-js/ Over the winter I was able to spend some free time assisting with the development of the Turf.js project! This was a very rewarding experience that has allowed me to better grasp some very important topics: Test Driven Development Test driven development is one of the most powerful concepts I picked up while working with Turf. Turf uses the Tape testing environment, and just like turf, focuses on being lightweight and fast. https://justinzimmerman.net/post/visualizing-map-service-usage/ Thu, 24 Oct 2013 08:41:16 -0400 justin.richard.zimmerman@gmail.com (Justin Zimmerman) https://justinzimmerman.net/post/visualizing-map-service-usage/ I recently developed a JavaScript web application to visualize incident reporting for a local municipality collecting Stormwater Incident Reports. The idea behind this application, will be to determine the usage of the reporting system, and to additionally determine “Problem Areas” for further corrective action planning. Importance of Dynamic Display One of the most important considerations for determining areas, is to determine the scale. The scale the data is viewed at can change the data is interpreted.