Rob Conery
269 posts published
Get Involved!
In this feature-length production, Scott Hanselman and Rob Conery offer suggestions and advice on how you can get out there, and get involved. Blogging, Twitter, Github, StackOverflow, User Groups and Conferences: get out there!
· Rob Conery
People Who Create Tutorials Need to Try Harder
There are too many crappy demos out there. It just takes a little extra time and some empathy to tie your tutorial to a real problem.
· Rob Conery
Losing Yourself
The hardest thing anyone can do is break down their own mental constructs, realizing they're toxic and destroy relationships. It's part of the journey.
· Rob Conery
Just Paddle
I really think too much. I have a lot of fear in me that keeps me from doing things I love to do. It's unhealthy and also self-obsessive (there are 3 "I's" and 2 "me's" above). I really need to stop thinking and just... do...
· Rob Conery
Creating a Full Text Search Engine in PostgreSQL, 2022
Writing a full text index in PostgreSQL is an art form. You need to know what your users are looking so you can build the right index AND you need to understand how they write their search terms. Thankfully, Postgres is here to help.
· Rob Conery
The Fabulous Linked List
It’s always fun to study the basics, and in this video we dive into the linked list and how to create one from scratch. Sounds ridiculous, but it can rescue an interview!
· Rob Conery
What's the Difference Between Vue 2.0 and Vue 3.0?
The third version of a framework, library or tool generally sucks, at least in my experience. Will this be the case with Vue 3? Let’s find out!
· Rob Conery
What's Your Exit Plan?
Retirement is one thing, being where you want to be and doing what you want to do when your current job is finished in another thing entirely. What’s your exit strategy?
· Rob Conery
Importing a CSV Into PostgreSQL Like a Pro
Importing data into PostgreSQL can be time consuming and painful – unless you toss the GUI tools and use scripts.
· Rob Conery
What’s the Best Hashing Algorithm for Storing Passwords?
Most people will default to bcrypt when choosing a hashing algorithm for storing sensitive information - but why? Are there other choices? Indeed! In this video we'll take a look at scrypt, PBKDF2 and my favorite: argon2
· Rob Conery
PostgreSQL Fundamentals
A deep dive into PostgreSQL fundamentals using real NASA data from the Cassini mission.
· Rob Conery
Virtual, Computed Columns in PostgreSQL 12
PostgreSQL 12 introduced a feature I've long wished for: computed columns that are indexable and stored on disk! They're amazing and in this post I'll show you how they work and how things kind of go...
· Rob Conery
Computer Science Fundamentals
A video companion to The Imposter's Handbook, covering essential computer science concepts for self-taught programmers.
· Rob Conery
Mod and Remainder Are Not The Same
A remainder and a modulus look so very similar, but they are not the same thing and worse, are treated differently by different programming languages. Do you know how your language handles mod?
· Rob Conery
Simple Monthly Reports in PostgreSQL
Working with dates and series of dates is easy in PostgreSQL, especially using generate_series
· Rob Conery
Going Out on Your Own as a Solo Programmer
Always wanted to go out on your own as a solo programmer but don't know where to start? I can't help you with the psychological aspects, but I can give you a blueprint and a plan.
· Rob Conery
Coding Interview Bootcamp
A comprehensive bootcamp to prepare you for technical interviews at top tech companies, featuring practice sessions with Jon Skeet from Google.
· Rob Conery
Take Off with Elixir
This is a legacy course I created in 2016, which I updated in 2023. It's still a viable course, however it might not have the newest language features.
· Rob Conery
It's Time To Get Over That Stored Procedure Aversion You Have
There is a lot of opinion about stored procedures out there that are just...
· Rob Conery
🆓 Is AI Going to Take My Job?
It's natural to feel like you're being pushed out of the tech world. It's true: AI can do a lot of the boring stuff we used to do, but I like to focus on the word "boring". It's kind of nice to not be bored, isn't it?
· Rob Conery
LAB: Preparing for Open Source
This is the final step for us for this workshop! We'll be using Copilot and Claude Sonnet one more time because I've found it writes the most complete markdown documents. Gemini's terseness is great, but having a full, rounded set of docs is even better.
· Rob Conery
LAB: AI, Review Yourself
It turns out that AI can plan your spec, create your database schema, write your data access code, and then write some of your app's logic. Oh yeah: it can also review its own work.
· Rob Conery
LAB: Writing Tests First
Writing code is what we do, and it's the fun part of being a programmer. Writing shopping cart code, however, might fall into that "boilerplate" category. There's just not much to figure out. Let's make Gemini do it.
· Rob Conery
LAB: Updating Our Spec
AI tools aren't just for code generation - they can refactor things as well, including our project spec.
· Rob Conery
LAB: Using Templates
This is where the fun truly begins. We're going to combine all the things we've learned in this session to create a simple data access layer for our project, complete with tests.
· Rob Conery
LAB: Adding Style Guides
Letting your AI tool decide how to code things is like letting a stranger on the street dress you in whatever fashion they like. Not gonna happen! So let's make sure we're on fleek with our LLM.
· Rob Conery
LAB: Create an Initial Spec
LLMs are exceedingly good at handling "boilerplate" code, which usually applies to things like data access, mapping records to objects, and commonplace logic like shopping carts.
· Rob Conery
LAB: Improving The Git Commit Message
In the last session we used Gemini CLI to create a commit message for us, but the prompting process took longer than just writing the message ourselves. Do we have to do this every time we need a commit message? Hopefully not, it's too much work.
· Rob Conery
LAB: Building Better Context With Instructions
In this session we're going to fine tune our AI tools to make the answers we get back more relevant, and the prompts we write much shorter. It's amazing what you can do with some extra context!
· Rob Conery
LAB: Write Me a Compiler Script
In this lab we'll see how this works, and using a little inception, I'll show you how I resized the images to layout properly on the page, and how to compile markdown documents into whatever output you like.
· Rob Conery