Friday 25 March 2016

Goodbye written media, hello youtube

Hey guys.
As you noticed, I haven't updated this site for a long time. I've had a lot of things going on, and it took its toll on the time I have on my hands.

Also, I don't enjoy writing and refactoring posts. I do however enjoy film making.

So that said, I've moved my braindumps over to youtube land in the form of DAILY vlogging.


This is my channel. Make sure to subscribe with the button above and comment, to interact. Let me know what you think and what topics you'd like me to touch on. It's a much larger commitment than blogging, but the format that I'm slowly getting to is allowing me to actually do it. The biggest motivator for me is to be able to commit to stuff in front of all of you, so that you would keep me true to myself and on my toes. So please subscribe, and help me on my journey to my dreams. In return, I'll try and do the same by bringing you some colour to your days.

I have a website for the project too: http://journeytomydreams.com/

Here's a playlist of the stuff I have currently:


Now you know. Thank you for reading this blog, and hug thanks for subscribing to the youtube channel. It means a lot!
There's also a giveaway that I'm running. Make sure to enter:




Blog off. Youtube on. See you there.

Wednesday 11 June 2014

Ever felt like you suck at handling CSS?

I am a back-end developer at heart. I have a passion for APIs, console applications and libraries. Every time I hung around frontend engineers, I felt like I suck big time. All those fancy and complicated tools, and they still keep on top of everything. I hate worrying about whether the files are in the right place, whether the CDN has the newest asset, etc. I like order, and I hate sucking at things.

Tuesday 18 February 2014

Rant about tools over craft

I've just posted a blog-post in the format of a gist to be able to have a sensible discussion about it.
Check it out here.

I would really like to hear your thoughts about the topic of tools over craft. While I believe in tools to help us be lazy and concentrate on the important stuff, some might be blocking us from learning and evolving.

What are your thoughts?

Monday 17 February 2014

Havig difficulties testing sites with 2 step authentication? Suffer no more!

We live in an era where the meaning of privacy - especially online privacy - is a vague, blurred thing waiting to be defined. We can never be 100% sure who, where and how is accessing our information. If we're lucky, the 3rd party's intentions are to protect us. To be honest, I don't feel as much aversion against sharing my life with Google and Facebook as many of my peers. I believe that as long as I benefit from what they gather... well, I don't have anything to hide. Really.

On the other hand, I strongly despise intruders who's acts on my account could very well raise suspicion over me without me actually doing anything wrong.
Fortunately more and more websites are introducing 2 factor authentication to prevent identity theft. While this will definitely not eradicate cyber crime, it might reduce it radically. I imagine people will less likely go into the trouble of getting access to my phone just to hack my email/facebook account if I'm not of any significance.

Since Google introduced TOTP into their login flow, many organizations using Google Apps made it mandatory for their employees. This however introduces extra complexity to the testing of tools and

Thursday 16 January 2014

So I found myself entering a remix contest ...

So as to prove myself that it's worth investing in my project studio, I've started to put my work out there and show the world (and myself) what I'm capable of.

The first manifest of my dedication is this remix of a GTA V classic. So far, the professional response was amazing, so I wanted to show this to all of you!

However, because it is a contest, I would be honoured if you could just click a "vote" on it if you like it.
(It uses facebook connect to check whether you've already voted or not.)

Will you help me win?

The Chain Gang of 1974 - Sleepwalking (meza remix)

How did you like it?

Tuesday 14 January 2014

2014 kickoff

Happy new year to all of you!

I hope you all closed a fruitful and wonderful 2013, and are full of great plans and opportunities for the following 12 months!



I've had an eventful last quarter, gathered some thoughts I'd like to share with you.

Soon, I'll write about :
  • When and what NOT to test
  • My journey with mongoDB and Neo4j, and why I use which in what situation
  • My journey with building a Spotify application
  • Prematurely scaling my start-up's code to be able to deal with the expected high data transfer
  • Building anti-corruption layers that could potentially save the site from dysfunction even when 3rd parties are down
  • I will continue the Hungarian article-series too (sorry 'bout that non-Hungarians, I still have 4 pieces to write)
  • and will show you some highlights of my musical career which now has a significantly larger focus in my life.    
 Looking forward to hearing from you in comments and/or in private!

p.s.: If I haven't replied yet, rest assured, I will! (I'm a bit behind emails)

Yours truly,
meza

Tuesday 29 October 2013

A vadászat - Angliai útikalauz ITsoknak

Sorry again, all English readers, I promise this will not be a trend! My article series for Hungarians continues. Thanks for your understanding! A more technical and English post is coming up next week! :)

Ha azt gondoltad, hogy az önéletrajzírás nehéz, akkor gondjaid tovább nőnek majd. Idáig könnyű dolgod volt mert nem voltál semmi más, csak adat. Adat, amivel Angliában nem szokás visszaélni. Adat, ami fekete vagy fehér. Kulcsszavak, cégnevek, megnevezések, referenciák. Amint egy szemfüles fejvadász kiszemelt Téged egy pozícióra, onnantól Rólad és a felek közti színjátékról szól a történet. Lehet, hogy most páran felhúztátok a szemöldökötök a kifejezést olvasván, de ez az igazság. “Színház az egész világ” és ez nincs másképp a jelen helyzetben sem. A leendő munkaadó eljátssza a mindenttudó, bölcs és tökéletes munkahely szerepét ahol az egész világ dolgozni akar. A fejvadász eljátssza, hogy tényleg Érted és a cégért van. Te pedig eljátszod, hogy Te vagy a legjobb az adott pozícióra az adott cégnek ami a vágyaid netovábbját képzi. Akármennyire büdös ez, meg kell enni. Ez van. Természetesen annál jobb a végeredmény, minél inkább hűek a színészek egyéniségeihez a szerepek. Ráadásul mivel a munkaerőpiac - Angliában - jelenleg iszonyú “profi szakember” hiányban szenved, ezért meg van a lehetőséged válogatni, ha türelmes vagy.

Tuesday 1 October 2013

Angliai útikalauz IT-soknak

I’ve been contacted many times before by fellow Hungarians about things you should know before moving to London. I’ve decided to write up everything I’ve experienced into a how-to. Because it is tightly coupled to Hungarian culture and life, I’m going to write these posts in Hungarian. Sorry for the inconvenience, and thanks for your understanding!

Szóval!
Sokan kérdeztetek már tőlem kisebb-nagyobb blokkokban kiköltözéssel kapcsolatban. A legtöbb információ amit a neten lehet találni az arról szól, hogy miképpen zajlik az élet a vendéglátásban vagy a gyerekfelügyelet területén. Azoknak viszont, akik IT-n belül mozognának, nekik nem sok hasznos gyümölcs terem az interneten.
Azoknak szól a poszt-sorozat, akik gondolkodnak a kiköltözésen és mindent körbe akarnak járni.
Összeszedjük a legfontosabb információkat a munka kereséshez, interjúzáshoz, költözéshez és berendezkedéshez. Mit kell tudni a jövedelemről, kiadásokról, lakhatásról, életről. Segítségemre lesz , aki betekintést nyújt a a fejvadászok életébe és elmeséli miképpen lehetünk sikeresek a velük való közös munka során. Mikre kell figyelnünk és hogyan illene viselkednünk. Katát és a munkáját kicsit jobban megismerhetitek ha elolvassátok a releváns blogbejegyzését :)

Tuesday 27 August 2013

But I only write test code, I'm not a programmer!

"But I only write test code, I'm not a programmer!"
"I'm only a tester, so I've never done TDD before!"
"Why should I care about readability, this is only test code?"

I often hear phrases along these lines from testers, and it makes me very sad. Not just the fact that this mentality often results in hard to maintain and brittle test code, but it also blocks testers from developing their skills.

Thursday 22 August 2013

Beyond craftsmanship?

Regarding creative work, I hear the following term a lot: Creating something from nothing.
A musician has the silence, and fills it with sound waves. A painter has an empty canvas, and fills it with paint. A programmer has a problem, and creates a solution. It can be challenging at first to grasp, but the initial state is not nothing and we're not creating anything. We are only transforming materials. This might be easier explained if we observe other crafts like carpentry or metalwork. Carpenters and blacksmiths create solutions to their customers' problems by crafting furniture and forging weapons  amongst many other things. So why do we sense a big distinction between the so called "creative" work from "physical" work? I'll share a little secret: given that each person we observe in each field is a professional, the only difference in their way of working is the materials they use.