007: Origin Stories Pt 1

All super heroes have an origin story. And, so do nerds. Many of us can remember back to that moment when we realized that there was magic in the world - magic that we could be part of; and, magic that we could help create. This week, we get personal with the crew and learn more about where they came from, what kind of stuff makes them tick, and what it is that they love about being web application developers.

This Part 1 of a two-part series. Part 1 includes Tim and Ben. Part 2 will include Carol and Adam.

Triumphs & Fails

• Adam's Triumph - He moved mountains of data using "pivot tables" in Google Sheets in order to build summaries of his newly-rolled-out test coverage at work! He's a hair's breadth away from fully converting his codebase over to an open-source platform.
• Ben's Triumph - He totally built something without JavaScript! I know, it sounds crazy: in the age of Single-Page Applications (SPA) and JavaScript frameworks, reaching for JavaScript is the default. But he managed to build something useful with just HTML and CSS!
• Carol's Triumph / Failure - She just passed the 4-month mark at her new job, like a boss! But, she been a little bit down in the mouth, concerned that she's not getting enough done and that she's not learning enough. She managed to turn the week around, however, getting some productive "Design Buddy" work (think "pair programming" for the planning phase) done.
• Tim's Triumph - He checked his old Coinbase account from 2015 and the $15 he left in there is now worth $85. He's about to wine and dine himself!

Notes & Links

• :target - CSS selector that matches elements whose id matches the URL fragment.
• Coinbase - a place to buy, sell, and manage your cryptocurrency portfolio.
• Lost Passwords Lock Millionaires Out of Their Bitcoin Fortunes - New York Times article about a millionaire who has two more chances to remember his password for quarter-billion in Bitcoin.
• Google Sheets: Pivot tables - creating and using pivot tables in Google Sheets.
• Aqua Data Studio - a versatile database IDE with data management and visual analytics for relational, cloud, and NoSQL databases.
• ELIZA - an early natural language processing computer program.
• Zork - one of the earliest interactive fiction computer games.
• Kaypro - a computer manufacturer from the 1980s known for their line of rugged, "luggable" computers.
• dBase - one of the first database management systems for microcomputers.
• CP/M - an early operating system.
• Ultima Online - one of the first MMO (Massively Multi-player Online) games.
• Adobe ColdFusion - a modern web development language.
• Lucee CFML - the leading open-source CFML application server / engine - it's so good you might just freak out!
• Sierra Entertainment - game company famous for King's Quest, Space Quest, and Leisure Suit Larry.
• Hackers - one of the best movies in the computer / hacker genre - Hack the planet!
• X-Files - 1990s tv drama about the FBI's paranormal phenomena research - the truth is out there!
• QBasic - an early programming language and interpreter.
• TI-82 - a programmable calculator.

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