Saturday 11 November 2017

Geecon Prague 2017

Recently I've had the opportunity to attend Geecon Prague conference. Taking into consideration the fact that there were only 3 available tracks, I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the valuable content of this event, and I'm looking forward to the next year.

I will mention some interesting talks:

Full-stack Reactive Java with Project Reactor & Spring Boot 2 by Mark Heckler
Mark has presented how easy it is to create a Netty-based Springboot 2 web reactive application. Non blocking Spring application can be produced as fast as Spring MVC one. It was a pleasure to listen to his presentation.

Software's Seven Deadly Wastes by Jez Halford

Jez summarized problems that take place during development.
The first problem he mentioned is Transport - movement of the work. Waiting for another team or for a process to happen. 
Second is Inventory - undelivered work. It is abandoned work, work in progress and working at once on many tasks. When we cancel a project, it is worth to make a meeting summarizing work and what can be done better. We should learn something from the failed project. The majority of the team could feel that it was no sense to work wasting so much time. Do small deliverables units, branch by abstraction, feature toggles. Visualize your work in progress. Stop starting and start finishing. Reducing inventory also reduce motion. Get rhythm. 
Third is Motion - movement of people around the work. Task switching, irregular meetings. Consider the whole system, take ownership, talk to people. 
Fourth is Waiting - delays in delivering the work, caused e.g. by waiting for another team, for an outside answer or clarification. Developers often find it annoying to simply wait for an issue. According to Jez, it may be helpful in such situations to address personally those who are blocking the task, as well as to complain to the teams and managers about it. To minimize this waste, deliver often, base performance improvements on evidence and refactor when you need to. 
Fifth is Over Processing - working too hard. It is solving imaginary problems, writing libraries in production code. To limit this waste, focus on string product ownership, fast feedback and remove stuff that is not used. 
Sixth is Over Production - doing useless work. 64% of built software is never used. We build features that won't be used. To prevent this, we can build automated tests, use continuous integration to be safer in refactoring process. 
Seventh is Defects - working on work. We must have proper test environment, fast release system. 
It was a good presentation to think over challenges in our work.

Deep dive and learn about your Operating System by Quentin Adam

Quentin presented how virtualization can be a performance horror for our applications. He described problems with processor caches and other abstractions. To mention some of them:

  • In java we can use -XX:+UseLargePages
  • We can change computer mode from energy safe to performance mode by C-States flag
  • The less complicated code, the better.
  • Be careful choosing data structures 
  • Do the next abstraction level only when it is really needed

It was a good presentation for high level developers to understand what system limitations our applications have.

High request rate system architecture - an Ad Tech case study by Jakub Dżon

It was an interesting presentation how ad platform is built. Jakub has shown selected architecture and how it has changed to meet the rising traffic.

Architecting for performance. A top-down approach by Ionut Balosin

It was a similar topic to Quentin's talk from the day before. To sum up:
srcdeps - source dependencies with Maven and Gradle by Peter Palaga

Peter presented library srcdeps that deals with source dependencies for maven and gradle project. 
It allows us to create a dependency between one project with another project with an exactly given commit. 
We must define project code repository and our project will retrieve dependent one, build it and install in our local repository. I think it is a very good idea to try it in microservice world. srcdeps has protection against releasing with source dependencies.  Gradle implementation is new and does not have all features that maven has. It does not have an ant and a sbt implementations so far.

Java 9 security enhancements in practice by Martin Toshev

It was a good presentation that showed how to implement secure TSL interactions in java applications both using java 8 libraries and java 9.

Analyzing HotSpot Crashes by Volker Simonis

Using a few application problems he deal with, Volker has shown how to analyze JVM crashes. He has presented all layers of the Hotspot where problems can appear. It was very interesting to look how Hotspot can crash, while Jit compiles. We can write Serviceability Agents to debug where problem appears.

Twitter's quest for a wholly Graal runtime by Chris Thalinger

Chris talked about Twitter experience with Graal VM. It is a project based in Oracle Labs developing a new JIT Compiler and Polyglot Runtime for the JVM. In twitter case (they are using Scala), it allows to reduce CPU usage by 10%.  It saves them a lot as they are using thousands of VMs. And JVM 9 contains Graal. It has also an enterprise paid option with more optimizations. Twitter has found a few bugs in Graal, but there are now fixed and for the last two years they have not found any new ones. 

High Performance Managed Languages by Martin Thompson 

Martin has made a talk that can be summarized by a quote of Albert Einstein he presented:

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, more violent. 
It takes a touch of genius, and a lot of courage, to move in the opposite direction.

He concluded, that contemporary choice of a technology to develop a new application is java, because of the ecosystem and optimizations on the whole stack (starting with JIT) that will make our application better then the one developed in low level technologies. To optimize we need to know the context. In the world with bounded budgets and time, high level technologies will serve us better. 
He advice to develop code as simple as possible and add new abstraction layer if it is really needed with more then 2 items of a kind.

Saturday 4 November 2017

Włam się do mózgu - Radosław Kotarski

Co jeśli większość metod, których w młodości i dorosłym życiu używamy do uczenia się wiedzy i umiejętności jest kompletnie bezużyteczna? Dlaczego pamiętamy tak mało informacji ze szkoły? Czas to zmienić!

Radek Kotarski wziął pod lupę setki naukowych artykułów i książek, a następnie przeprowadził na sobie serię eksperymentów, aby sprawdzić przeróżne metody uczenia się. Wszystko po to, aby wytypować skuteczne techniki, za pomocą których można w nowoczesny i przyjemny sposób zdobywać wiedzę. To one będą prawdziwymi wytrychami, którymi włamiemy się do naszych mózgów! W końcu przez całe życie mieliśmy i mamy jeszcze sporo do zapamiętania. 

Monday 23 October 2017

DNS refresh time


  • DNS is typically cached on the machine for an hour.
  • DNS change is expected to be propagated  up to 24 hours across the internet.


Saturday 7 October 2017

Man's Search for Meaning

Internationally renowned psychiatrist, Viktor E. Frankl, endured years of unspeakable horror in Nazi death camps. During, and partly because of, his suffering, Dr. Frankl developed a revolutionary approach to psychotherapy known as logotherapy. At the core of his theory is the belief that man's primary motivational force is his search for meaning.
Man's Search for Meaning is more than a story of Viktor E. Frankl's triumph: it is a remarkable blend of science and humanism and an introduction to the most significant psychological movement of our day.

Tuesday 26 September 2017

Nonviolent Communication



Nonviolent Communication - Marshall Rosenberg


What if you could defuse tension and create accord in even the most volatile situations - just by changing the way you spoke? Over the past 35 years, Marshall Rosenberg has done just that, peacefully resolving conflicts in families, schools, businesses, and governments in 30 countries all over the world. On Nonviolent Communication, this renowned peacemaker presents his complete system for speaking our deepest truths, addressing our unrecognized needs and emotions, and honoring those same concerns in others. With this adaptation of the best-selling book of the same title, Marshall Rosenberg teaches in his own words:
  • Observations, feelings, needs, and requests - how to apply the four-step process of Nonviolent Communication to every dialogue we engage in
  • Overcoming the blocks to compassion - and opening to our natural desire to enrich the lives of those around us
  • How to use empathy to safely confront anger, fear, and other powerful emotions
Here is a definitive audio training workshop on Marshall Rosenberg's proven methods for "resolving the unresolvable" through Nonviolent Communication.


Tuesday 12 September 2017

The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business

Getting an MBA is an expensive choice-one almost impossible to justify regardless of the state of the economy. Even the elite schools like Harvard and Wharton offer outdated, assembly-line programs that teach you more about PowerPoint presentations and unnecessary financial models than what it takes to run a real business. You can get better results (and save hundreds of thousands of dollars) by skipping business school altogether. 

Josh Kaufman founded PersonalMBA.com as an alternative to the business school boondoggle. His blog has introduced hundreds of thousands of readers to the best business books and most powerful business concepts of all time. Now, he shares the essentials of entrepreneurship, marketing, sales, negotiation, operations, productivity, systems design, and much more, in one comprehensive volume. The Personal MBA distills the most valuable business lessons into simple, memorable mental models that can be applied to real-world challenges. 

The Personal MBA explains concepts such as: 
  • The Iron Law of the Market: Why every business is limited by the size and quality of the market it attempts to serve-and how to find large, hungry markets. 
  • The 12 Forms of Value: Products and services are only two of the twelve ways you can create value for your customers. 
  • The Pricing Uncertainty Principle: All prices are malleable. Raising your prices is the best way to dramatically increase profitability - if you know how to support the price you're asking. 
  • 4 Methods to Increase Revenue: There are only four ways a business can bring in more money. Do you know what they are? 
True leaders aren't made by business schools - they make themselves, seeking out the knowledge, skills, and experience they need to succeed. Read this book and you will learn the principles it takes most business professionals a lifetime of trial and error to master.

Sunday 27 August 2017

Dekalog księdza Jana Kaczkowskiego

Dekalog, słowo po słowie z Księdzem Janem Kaczkowskim

Słuchaliśmy Go, bo na co dzień żył tym, co głosił. Docenialiśmy Go, bo poważnie traktował ludzkie problemy. Podziwialiśmy Go, bo do ostatnich chwil cierpliwie odpowiadał na nasze pytania i wątpliwości.

Wśród wywiadów udzielonych przez ks. Jana Kaczkowskiego znalazł się również ten, który właśnie oddajemy do rąk czytelników. To rozmowa o sprawach fundamentalnych - Dekalogu i codziennych trudnościach życia zgodnie z przykazaniami.

Ksiądz Jan Kaczkowski nie pouczał, raczej dzielił się swoim doświadczeniem. Był wiarygodnym świadkiem i dlatego jego słowa są tak cenne.

Do wywiadu dołączamy płytę z kilkoma wyjątkowymi nagraniami, wśród których znajduje się także Ostatnia droga krzyżowa ks. Jana Kaczkowskiego nagrana dwa miesiące przed jego śmiercią.

http://e.wydawnictwowam.pl/tyt,75860,Dekalog_ksiedza_jana_kaczkowskiego.htm

Saturday 26 August 2017

Życie na pełnej petardzie czyli wiara, polędwica i miłość

Książka nagrodzona tytułem Książki Roku 2015 lubimyczytać.pl w kategorii Autobiografia, biografia, wspomnienia.

Jeden z najbardziej lubianych polskich księży w rozmowie życia.

Ceniony za swój autentyzm, odwagę i szczerość. Podziwiany zarówno przez katolików, jak i niewierzących. Sam o sobie mówi, że jest onkocelebrytą, czyli człowiekiem znanym głównie z tego, że ma raka. Zanim się o tym dowiedział, wybudował hospicjum w Pucku.

W szkole nie chodził na religię. Gdy już zyskał pewność do swojego powołania - odrzucili go jezuici (Niech żałują!). Kłopoty ze wzrokiem prawie uniemożliwiły mu święcenia (- A pieniądze widzi?; - Widzi!; -To święcić!)

W inspirującej rozmowie z Piotrem Żyłką ks. Jan zdradza źródła swojej niesamowitej energii i nieskończonych pokładów optymizmu. O swoim życiu i polskim Kościele mówi z odwagą i dystansem osoby, która pokonała własny strach. Wzruszające do łez świadectwo człowieka, który wie, że być może nie zostało mu wiele czasu.

http://www.znak.com.pl/kartoteka,ksiazka,69805,Zycie-na-pelnej-petardzie-czyli-wiara-poledwica-

Monday 21 August 2017

Flycut (Clipboard manager) for Mac

Description

Flycut is a clean and simple clipboard manager for developers. It based on open source app called Jumpcut. Flycut is also open source: http://github.com/TermiT/flycut

https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/flycut-clipboard-manager/id442160987?mt=12

Wednesday 2 August 2017

Cejrowski. Biografia

Wojciech Cejrowski. Jako nastolatek walczył z systemem komunistycznym. Za udział w protestach po zamordowaniu Grzegorza Przemyka milicja wyłamała mu wszystkie palce u rąk.
Wiele lat później - w wolnej Polsce - został skazany za publiczne krytykowanie pijanego prezydenta RP Aleksandra Kwaśniewskiego. Mimo takich doświadczeń nadal odważnie wyraża swoje poglądy.

"Bohater prawej części prawicy, wcielony diabeł dla wszystkich postępowców. Radykalny antykomunista i równie nieprzejednany krytyk demokracji. Polski patriota i żarliwy katolik o... żydowsko-hiszpańskich korzeniach. Podróżnik, komik, performer. Biznesmen i autor bestsellerowych książek politycznych i podróżniczych, których łączny nakład przekroczył milion egzemplarzy. Jedna z najbardziej kontrowersyjnych postaci polskiego życia publicznego. A jednocześnie człowiek, który przez 20 lat wyjątkowo skutecznie chronił swoją prywatność przed wścibstwem prasy brukowej i dociekliwością poważnych dziennikarzy. Kim naprawdę jest Wojciech Cejrowski? I ilu ich jest?! Ta książka zawiera odpowiedź." Grzegorz Brzozowicz- autor

"Oto biografia, która nie powinna się ukazać, choć musiała. Oto bohater książki, który podbił serca milionów czytelników, widzów i słuchaczy, mimo że kiedyś został skazany na medialne nieistnienie. Oskarżany za swe poglądy i nietolerancję, pokazał nam jak należy być otwartym i tolerancyjnym wobec innych kultur.
W książce zobaczymy przedsiębiorczego i zaradnego człowieka, który wszystko zawdzięcza sobie. Zdolności do barwnej gawędy zazdroszczą mu wszyscy. Że jest trudny w kontakcie? Nobody’s perfect!"

http://lubimyczytac.pl/ksiazka/73336/cejrowski-biografia

Monday 31 July 2017

StrengthsFinder

DO YOU HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO USE YOUR STRENGTHS EVERY DAY?

Chances are, you don’t. All too often, our natural talents go untapped. From the cradle to the cubicle, we devote more time to fixing our shortcomings than to developing our strengths.

To help people uncover their talents, Gallup introduced the first version of its online assessment, StrengthsFinder, in the 2001 management book Now, Discover Your Strengths. The book spent more than five years on the bestseller lists and ignited a global conversation, while StrengthsFinder helped millions discover their top five talents.

In StrengthsFinder 2.0, Gallup unveils the new and improved version of its popular assessment, language of 34 themes, and much more. While you can read this book in one sitting, you’ll use it as a reference for decades.

Loaded with hundreds of strategies for applying your strengths, this new book and accompanying website will change the way you look at yourself — and the world around you — forever.

https://www.amazon.com/StrengthsFinder-2-0-Tom-Rath/dp/1531865321

Friday 28 July 2017

(NIE)GRZECZNI?

Poznaj krainę dziecięcych emocji, reakcji i lęków!
(NIE)Grzeczne dzieci, czyli jak zdefiniować grzeczność i co z tego wynika
Niegrzeczność w praktyce, czyli jak zrozumieć, o co chodzi dziecku
Rodzic roszczeniowy versus rodzic odlotowy, czyli jak sensownie ustawiać granice
Jeśli jesteś rodzicem, w pół słowa zrozumiesz wszystkie emocje i lęki targające dorosłymi obecnymi na kartach tej książki. Bez trudu odnajdziesz z nimi wspólny język, oparty na tożsamości doświadczeń, bezradności i frustracji. Trochę trudniej będzie Ci za to pojąć, jak myśli i odczuwa Twoje (nie)grzeczne dziecko i na czym w ogóle polega ta (nie)grzeczność. Na szczęście autorki książki, prywatnie i zawodowo związane ze sferą dziecięcych humorów, zachowań i odkryć, pomogą Ci wejść w świat Twojego dziecka i choć na chwilę przyjąć jego perspektywę.

Wszystkie sytuacje opisane w tej książce zdarzyły się naprawdę, a brak porozumienia co do istoty problemu spowodował gniew i rozżalenie u obu stron konfliktu. Jednak ponieważ każdej z przedstawionych tu scen towarzyszy szczegółowy zapis emocji i postaw zarówno dziecka, jak i dorosłego, a także bezstronna ocena eksperta, zyskujesz niepowtarzalną szansę przetestowania “na sucho” podobnych zachowań, by uniknąć błędów w przyszłości. Wychowanie dziecka nie jest prostą sprawą, ale jeśli chcesz na całe życie zachować z nim dobry kontakt, a przy tym mądrze pokierować jego rozwojem, koniecznie przeczytaj tę książkę. I korzystaj z niej na co dzień!

http://sensus.pl/ksiazki/nie-grzeczni-monika-janiszewska-malgorzata-bajko,grznie.htm

Homeschooling for Success: How Parents Can Create a Superior Education for Their Child


This book is a quick reference guide for anyone considering homeschool; it covers some of the misconceptions and common concerns about homeschooling. Being general and concise it is a text that gives the reader a simple idea about homeschool, both initiating it and continuing it through and up to college. If you are considering homeschooling make this part of your inventory for investigating this avenue. The book, as said before, is concise, it is merely 178 pages long, but continues with three very salutary appendices constituting a homeschooling resource guide, homeschooling support groups in each state and lastly, a brief summary of state laws for every state. This book will get you started, but it should supplement your desire to understand homeschooling.

The Road to Character

"I wrote this book not sure I could follow the road to character, but I wanted at least to know what the road looks like and how other people have trodden it." (David Brooks)
With the wisdom, humor, curiosity, and sharp insights that have brought millions of readers to his New York Times column and his previous best sellers, David Brooks has consistently illuminated our daily lives in surprising and original ways. In The Social Animal, he explored the neuroscience of human connection and how we can flourish together. Now, in The Road to Character, he focuses on the deeper values that should inform our lives. Responding to what he calls the culture of the Big Me, which emphasizes external success, Brooks challenges us and himself to rebalance the scales between our "résumé virtues" - achieving wealth, fame, and status - and our "eulogy virtues," those that exist at the core of our being: kindness, bravery, honesty, faithfulness, and relationships.
Looking to some of the world's greatest thinkers and inspiring leaders, Brooks explores how, through internal struggle and a sense of their own limitations, they have built strong inner character. Labor activist Frances Perkins understood the need to suppress parts of herself so she could be an instrument in a larger cause. Dwight Eisenhower organized his life not around impulsive self-expression but considered self-restraint. Dorothy Day, a devout Catholic convert and champion of the poor, learned as a young woman the vocabulary of simplicity and surrender. Civil rights pioneers A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin learned reticence and the logic of self-discipline, the need to distrust oneself even while waging a noble crusade.
Blending psychology, politics, spirituality, and confessional, The Road to Character provides an opportunity for us to rethink our priorities and strive to build rich inner lives marked by humility and moral depth.

Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant

Winning by not competing! This international best seller upends traditional thinking with principles and tools to make the competition irrelevant.
In an audiobook that challenges everything you thought you knew, W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne assert that tomorrow's leading companies will succeed, not by battling their rivals for market share in the bloody "red ocean" of a shrinking profit pool, but by creating "blue oceans" of untapped new market spaces ripe for growth.
Based on a study of 150 strategic moves, spanning more than 100 years and 30 industries, they provide a systematic approach that every company can use to render rivals obsolete and unleash new demand:
  • Reconstruct market boundaries
  • Focus on the big picture
  • Reach beyond existing demand
  • Get the strategic sequence right
  • Overcome organizational hurdles
  • Build execution into strategy

  • Getting Past No: Negotiating with Difficult People

    Everyone knows that it is the give-and-take of negotiation that enables decisions to be made, problems to be solved, needs to be satisfied - in our professional as well as our personal lives. But where does that leave you when you confront someone who has no intention of negotiating fairly or in good faith? How can you find common ground when your opponent - an angry boss, an unreasonable client, a deceitful colleague, an insecure business partner, a stubborn spouse - refuses to give an inch? How, in short, can you get to "yes" when someone else says "no"?
    In Getting Past No, Dr. Ury offers his unique five-step system to dismantle stone walls, disarm tough bargainers, deflect attacks, and dodge dirty tricks. Dr. Ury's method of breakthrough negotiation depends not on scoring a win over your opponent - but on winning him over. Getting Past No offers specific techniques and proven strategies designed to identify the problem, develop practical proposals, and invent creative options that satisfy both sides' needs.
    Whether you're dealing with an unruly teenager or an office bully, Dr. Ury's method will help you gain control in even the most difficult situations. More than getting mad or getting even, Getting Past No will get you results!

    Thursday 27 July 2017

    Fizyka życia - http://www.physicsoflife.pl/

    Życie to coś więcej niż walka, to gra. Gra, która toczy się bez ustanku. Gra, w której ktoś wygrywa. Gra, z której odpadają pokonani, a zwycięzcy zdobywają prawo do powielenia i dalszej gry. Gra, w której gra jeden na jednego, jeden na wielu, wielu na jednego i wielu na wielu; w której grają rodzice, klony i zwycięskie klony klonów.
    Na treningach siatkówki, bilarda, zapasów, szachów i każdej innej dyscypliny sportowej, trenerzy nie podają magicznej formuły wygrywania. Bo na wygrywanie nie ma prostego wzoru, który każdemu i zawsze zapewniałby zwycięstwo!

    ... a jednak trenuje się! Trenuje się po to by wygrywać! A wszystko to, co na trening się składa - wyrafinowane metody, sprawdzone zasady, wieloletnie doświadczenie, zaawansowana analiza teoretyczna, ciężka praca i od czasu do czasu jakiś matematyczny wzór - to wiedza, wiedza służąca do wygrywania.
    Fizyka Życia to nie wzory, to wiedza. Wiedza dotycząca gry najważniejszej - życia. Gry, pełnej przeróżnych reguł, często niezrozumiałych i bezlitosnych, lecz czasem pełnych miłości i poświęcenia. Gry, w której każdy z nas, czy tego chce czy nie, bierze udział!

    Friday 20 January 2017

    Rich Dad Poor Dad

    Rich Dad Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money - That The Poor And Middle Class Do Not! Kindle Edition



    Rich Dad Poor Dad will…
    • explode the myth that you need to earn a high income to become rich
    • challenge the belief that your house is an asset
    • show parents why they can’t rely on the school system to teach their kids
    about money
    • define, once and for all, an asset and a liability
    • explain the difference between good debt and bad debt
    • teach you to see the world of money from different perspectives
    • discuss the shift in mindset that can put you on the road to financial freedom