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Name: Travis Sidelinger
Email: travis@ilive4code.net
ICQ: 1830139
Location: Hilliard, Ohio USA
My ideology can be described by the following guidelines
Do not add new functionality unless an implementor cannot complete a real application without it.
It is as important to decide what a system is not as to decide what it is. Do not serve all the world's needs; rather, make the system extensible so that additional needs can be met in an upwardly compatible fashion.
The only thing worse than generalizing from one example is generalizing from no examples at all.
If a problem is not completely understood, it is probably best to provide no solution at all.
If you can get 90 percent of the desired effect for 10 percent of the work, use the simpler solution.
Isolate complexity as much as possible.
Provide mechanism, rather than policy. In particular, place user interface policy in the client's hands.
From Scheifler & Gettys: “X Window System”
Learn several real programming languages (C/C++, Java, Perl, Python, Ruby, PHP). Write programs. Reverse engineer and debug software on a regular basis.
Go to conferences, see what others are doing.
Always be critical of yourself.
Share your ideas, listen to the idea's of others.
Avoid vendor lock-in.
Use open standards.
Always search for source information. Read RFCs, ISOs, IEEE, source code, comments from the original authors.
Avoid wizzy wigs, such as Yast. The time spent learning the wizard is often not much less then the time spent learning what's really going on, and you get smarter to boot.
Read Slashdot daily. Besides staying informed, the humor found on Slashdot will boost your sanity.
Listen to NPR (National Public Radio) daily. Okay, this one is not IT related, but you need to be well rounded.
Keep good notes.
Use mathematics ⇒ meaning, remember all that stuff they taught you in all those math classes you had to take. Use it.
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