This is what I learned in January and February 2020:
- As I wrote in the last lessons learned article, I did not work for some months and re-entered the software development business only a couple of weeks ago. Hence, this article here is about the timeframe from January and February. When I returned to work, I saw things with quite some mental distance. Being away from projects this long (and also what happened in the meantime) gave me a relaxed, calm and semi-objective perspective. I guess that is the feeling people have when returning after a sabbatical.
- Recently, the Windows Explorer on my work machine failed to load directories when opening the explorer. Only a loading bar in the address bar indicated some kind of scanning process that never ended. On Youtube, I found the solution to delete all files under %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations. Also, there were some network drives that could only be removed by editing the registry. That seemed to work at first, but the problem occurred some time later. The real issue was the VPN tool I use to connect to the companies network. Sometimes it fails to connect the right way, so that network drives are not reachable.
- Learned about https://dannyvankooten.com/website-carbon-emissions/ and https://www.websitecarbon.com . I have to read up on this and change the way I develop web applications.
- Learned that Kitematic, a management application for Docker containers, is also available for Windows. However, Kitematic will be discontinued in 2020 because the main features will move to Docker Desktop.
- Although I didn’t expect it, I learned something new regarding comments in Java code. A single line comment is created with // and often used for TODOs. Sometimes, it needs line wrapping because it gets too long. However, if a TODO-comment consists of two lines, only the first line is highlighted in the IDE as a TODO. To get the second line highlighted, too, simply add one more space at the beginning of the second line.
- I learned about “Red Teaming”, a concept used in IT security. Apparently, “Red Teaming” describes pen-tests without any regulations and under realistic conditions. In this setup, even social engineering is allowed to test the overall-security of a system.
- I created a repository with notes about Docker.
I did not finish any books relevant to software engineering.
This is what I’m working on right now / planning to do in the near future / other stuff:
- There’s a lot going on in the IT Hub Braunschweig. We will publish a report soon in which our acitivities are listed.
(Photo: adrian825, http://www.istockphoto.com/photo/monthly-management-reports-36658768)
