Everything is a Windfall

The Christmas season comes again and most of us are preparing gifts for loved ones. Some of us are even expecting our most-awaited gift on Christmas day. There are others who eagerly wait for the latest windfall or bonus from their employers. The holiday spirit springs to life again.

Not all of us are so lucky. The Sonoran Desert in North America is considered to be the hottest desert in Mexico. This desert only receives 3 to 15 inches (75 to 380 mm) of rain per year. You may think that it is a barren wasteland, but this desert is home for a hardy people: the Tohono O’odham. Continue Reading

Slightly off Rails

I use Rails both professionally and personally for more than a decade now. Through the years, my usage of Rails also evolved together with new concepts and trends in web development. Here are some of the personal changes I am applying moving forwards on how I work with the framework.

Authentication using JWT

JSON Web Tokens (JWT) provides a way to effectively secure API endpoints. As web applications move more to the front-end with the popularity of Javascript frameworks like React and Angular, JWT ensures that the connection between the front-end and the back-end remains secure. Continue Reading

Complain Last

I notice a disturbing pattern in society today: people seem to complain more and more about everything. This is readily apparent in social media, but I also notice it in real-life interactions as well. Instead of complaining immediately after a perceived slight (complaining first), is it possible for us to complain last?

Being a victim is easy. And us humans love easy things. It is easy to blame other people, to blame our environment and our past. It doesn’t seem to be natural for us to take ownership of what is happening with our lives. Continue Reading

Hello Rails 6!

Rails 6 was just released last month (August 2019). I have been using Rails professionally for more than a decade now, starting from Rails 2. Having worked on version 2 up to 5, this latest release is an exciting moment for me.

The full release notes are available here, but we will touch on some of the more notable changes and improvements that make Rails 6 a nice major version upgrade. Continue Reading

Grit is bad?

This is in response to an article from Aeon titled “Teaching ‘grit’ is bad for children, and bad for democracy“. After reading it, I asked myself, “Is grit really bad?”.

The article discussed the ideas behind the book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth. Citing several examples in the book, it discussed the darker side of grit. It says that grit results to people doing mean, stupid things or doing things that they should not have done. One particular example is from a football team’s chant: Continue Reading

Tech and FI

Technology and Financial Independence