My name is Rod Hilton and I’m a software developer located in Colorado. I primarily deal with Java and Scala, though I work with a number of different programming languages like Ruby. I’m also a PhD candidate at the University of Colorado in Denver, studying Computer Science with a focus on Machine Learning.
This blog mostly focuses on my fascination with technical topics and my professional and academic life. Once I made a post about Star Wars, and now it's 98% of my traffic.
Posts
02 Jan 2019: Strengths Only: A Peer-Review Philosophy02 May 2018: Programming Podcasts: A Roundup09 Apr 2017: A Branching Strategy Simpler than GitFlow: Three-Flow20 Jun 2016: Software Engineering Guiding Principles - Part 215 Jun 2016: Software Engineering Guiding Principles - Part 130 Apr 2016: My StrengthsFinder Results28 Dec 2015: Star Wars Machete Order: Update and FAQ13 Nov 2015: PhD Status Report27 Aug 2015: Testing Against Template Renders in Grails01 Jul 2015: QCon New York 2015: A Review04 Jul 2014: Uploading a Jekyll Site to Rackspace Cloudfiles24 Jun 2014: The Worst Programming Interview Question05 Feb 2014: Top 10 Career-Changing Programming Books17 Dec 2013: CenturyLink: Traps and Caps30 Aug 2013: Diving Into Android30 Jul 2013: OSCON 2013: A Review10 Jun 2013: Book Review: Presentation Patterns22 May 2013: Spring 2013 Semester in Review02 Feb 2013: Brief Thoughts on Software Craftsmanship20 Dec 2012: Fall 2012 Semester in Review15 Dec 2012: A Stroll Through the Complexity Zoo26 Oct 2012: Scala Second Impressions19 Oct 2012: Book Review: The Career Programmer05 Oct 2012: Getting "Real Work" Done14 Sep 2012: Traveling Salesperson: The Most Misunderstood Problem10 Aug 2012: Need-Driven Development15 May 2012: Personal Wiki using GitHub and Gollum on OS X11 May 2012: Spring 2012 Semester In Review02 Feb 2012: Computer Science and Telescopes21 Dec 2011: Fall 2011 Semester In Review15 Dec 2011: Scala First Impressions11 Nov 2011: The Star Wars Saga: Introducing Machete Order29 Oct 2011: Why The Complete Bipartite Graph K3,3 Is Not Planar21 Oct 2011: I Broke Your Code, And It's Your Fault27 Sep 2011: Magic Variables Aren't Always Magic12 Sep 2011: Moving One Git Repository Into Another As A Subdirectory25 Aug 2011: Mechanics of Good Pairing19 Aug 2011: Conditionally Running Tests With JUnit 416 Aug 2011: What Is Technical Debt?05 Aug 2011: Be Careful With Clover in Jenkins31 Jul 2011: Ubuntu, Tomcat, Jenkins, Git, and SSH Together22 Jul 2011: When To Work On Technical Debt09 Jun 2011: Building a Résumé With Templator31 May 2011: Leaving Rally27 May 2011: A Different Kind of Technical Interview23 May 2011: Adding 'Dont Hyphenate Classname" Support to Hyphenator15 Apr 2011: Going Back to School (Again)10 Sep 2010: Agile With a Capital “A” Vs. agile With a Lowercase “a”.06 Jul 2010: Finding High-Impact Areas for Refactoring27 Apr 2010: Certifications Aren't "Bad" (They Just Aren't "Good," Either)06 Apr 2010: Avoiding The Big Design Interview Question26 Jan 2010: You Have To Buy It Twice Before It’s Cheap13 Dec 2009: Quantitatively Evaluating Test-Driven Development17 Nov 2009: Units are Not Classes: Improving Unit Testing By Removing Artificial Boundaries21 Aug 2009: My Personal 3 Pillars of Job Satisfaction02 Aug 2009: How To: Convert Audible .aa Files to .mp3 Quickly01 Aug 2009: Enhancement vs. Defect: More Than Pedantry31 Jul 2009: Book Review: Pragmatic Thinking and Learning27 Jul 2009: 5 Ways To Hose Your Estimates02 May 2009: How I Lost 90 Pounds in One Year27 Mar 2009: Managing The Firehose: Controlling RSS Through Pipes21 Feb 2009: I Love Pair-Programming19 Feb 2009: Book Review: The Art of Agile Development11 Dec 2008: My Least Favorite Interview Question05 Dec 2008: Apple: Semi-First Impressions08 Oct 2008: Listing Only Java Processes12 Sep 2008: Moving On...10 Jul 2008: Fixing WAYD (What Are You Doing) Plugin for Gnome Deskbar 2.20.002 Jul 2008: Blue Sage Realty Sucks: "I'm Rejecting Your Application. Get Out."04 Jun 2008: Getting A Java Object's Refence ID02 Jun 2008: Passed The Java Developer Exam!28 Apr 2008: Assert_tag With Two Siblings In Rails04 Apr 2008: Setting JAVA_HOME in a Batch File12 Mar 2008: Using Multiple Versions Of Rails01 Feb 2008: Changing Logging Behavior of Rails via Extensions10 Oct 2007: Java Compiler Generating Secret Methods10 Sep 2007: Language Marathon: First Impressions of Ruby, Python, and C#.29 Jan 2007: Saying Goodbye To Windows16 Jan 2007: Bigger and Better Things...13 Jan 2007: Using Western Digital NetCenter with Ubuntu Linux30 Dec 2006: My Interview With Google07 Dec 2006: Coldfusion's Compiler18 Sep 2006: Passed The SCWCD Exam!13 Jun 2006: Java 5 Global Exception Handling27 Apr 2006: Password Change Policies19 Mar 2006: The Innovation Paradox01 Feb 2006: Bypassing an OK-Only Message Box31 Jan 2006: Getting Remote IP Address In Axis31 Jan 2006: Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo30 Jan 2006: How To Set Up 2 Java JDKs With Eclipse29 Jan 2006: First Post