Samuel Taggart - The SAS Workshops Blog (Page 3)

A block diagram showing a setup for using GitLab CI to spawn KVM VMs on demand.

Continuous Integration , How to

More on GitLab Custom Executors

If you are trouble visualizing how GitLab Custom Executors Work, here is a diagram that might help.

A young man looking back over his shoulder. You can't see his face.

Goals

2023 in Review

Here is my look back at 2023. How did your 2023 go? Did you make progress towards your goals?

A picture of someone writing in a notebook. The photo just shows from the shoulder down.

Random

Why I write

Do you have a blog? Why do you write? Have you thought about it?

A venn diagram with 2 overlapping circles.

Business

If you are having trouble marketing your products and services, perhaps instead of focusing on what you sell, you may get better results by focusing on building a community of people with shared values.

Continuous Integration , How to

Spawning VMs like Docker Containers

I've figured out how to use the KVM Executor for GitLab to spawn VMs similar to Docker Containers. It works quite well as an alternative.

How to , DevOps

Compressing KVM Disks for Win10 VMs

If you are using VMs at all, it makes sense to compress them to save disk space. Here's how to do it for KVM with Win10 guests.

Conferences

Devternity Scandal

I can no longer recommend the Devternity Conference. Any conference that invents fake speakers no longer has my interest.

How to

SSH Server on Windows 10

Did you know you can run SSH server on a Windows machine and SSH into it?

Community

LabVIEW Consultant Summit

Want to learn more about running a LabVIEW-related business? Join us at the LabVIEW Consultant Summit!

Continuous Integration , DevOps , Software Engineering , Coding Philosophy

What is the Value Proposition of CI/CD?

Do you use CI/CD? If not, why not? If so, what benefits do you see?

Coding Philosophy

Pick Learning Over Blaming

What opportunities has your organization missed out on by focusing on blaming rather than learning?

Sam On Joel , Coding Philosophy

Painless Functional Specs Part 2

Do you write detailed specs for your projects? What do you include?

Continuous Integration , Software Engineering , DevOps

CI/CD workshop

At SAS Workshops we believe in "Small Steps and Fast Feedback". Having a Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipeline is a large part of that.

Coding Philosophy , Book Reviews

Accidents in North American Climbing 2023

What can studying climbing accidents teach us about coding? It turns out a lot.

A old school balance for measuring mass sitting on a table next to a laptop with a blurry chair the background.

Business

Consultant versus Contractor

What is the difference between a consultant and a contractor? How do you pick out the good ones?

Coding Philosophy , Sam On Joel

Five Worlds

Is there one "right" way to do software development? or does it depend on the context?

Coding Philosophy

"We are uncovering" versus "We have discovered"

Are you still curious? or have you discovered "the way" to do software development?

Business

Must read/view for LabVIEW Consultants

If you are a LabVIEW Consultant, here are a few resources that are invaluable.

Book Reviews

The Right Stuff

If you heard Scott Kelly talk at NI Week several years ago, you may recognize this book. I finally got around to reading it.

Coding Philosophy

Worry About The Message First, Then The Handwriting

We judge LabVIEW code all wrong. Straighter wires and prettier icons are not the solution to poor design.

Interviews

Bug Hunters Cafe

I recently sat down Jason C. MacDonald at the Bug Hunters Cafe. We had a really great conversation about bug hunting in LabVIEW.

Coding Philosophy

The Value of Open Source

There is a lot of value in open source tools and it goes beyond just the initial problem they are designed to solve.

Coding Philosophy

Go slow to Go Fast.

Every time I read my kids the book, the tortoise always wins. Yet as adults we seem to have missed the lesson.

How to , Software tools

Publishing AntiDoc Documentation using GitLab Pages

I just discovered GitLab Pages recently. It has been around for a while, so this may not be news to anyone, but I'm sure it's news to at least one of my readers and I've found a somewhat novel use case for it, so I decided to do a blog post about it.

Book Reviews , Coding Philosophy

How To Make Mistakes in Python

I stumbled upon this book recently. It was quite good. I highly recommend everyone (yes even LabVIEW Developers) read it. It is very insightful. It's also free and very short at 76 pages and it reads fast. There really is no excuse. I very much like the title.