Survey Results

Here’s a list of all the polls we’ve run on the show, enjoy!

Regarding the frequency of the podcast, which would you prefer most:

A show released once every three or so weeks around 1-1.5 hours in length
Shows released a few times a week around 10-15 minutes in length
A show released once a week around 30 minutes in length
Just testing
Anytime, I can hear Michael's voice, would be awesome!!!
Once a week, around an hour time frame.
Keep the current release cycle, address simple questions with a 5-10 minute segment per episode, dedicate longer episodes as to questions as needed.
A 1 hour show once per week would be nice. Any shorter and things often start to feel rushed or superficial.
every 2 weeks, 45-1 hour. perfect.
1 a week 1 hour long, sweet jesus
~50 minutes once a week would be nice. .NET Rocks are around that length and I love them.
I think the best podcast length is likely equivalent to the mean commute time (~25-30 minutes). Twice a week would be great because it is easier to carry a thread. Also, I think the audience begins to forget your exist if they are released only every few weeks.
How about 30 minute weeklies and 90 minutes monthlies
I don't have time for 10 minute shows. 30 minutes is my cutoff. If a podcast is less than 30 minutes long I usually don't bother playing it because it's distracting to navigate to a different podcast. Considering I often listen in my car, at the gym, or while doing other things with my hands I don't like short podcasts. And besides podcasts are not television, who wants to be reminded of the crappy experience television provides making you reach for the remote every 10 minutes because of commercials.
Once a week but 30 mins is not enough to get into a topic. Officially I vote 1/week but if you have to go to every 2 or 3 weeks to have enough time to fully cover a topic I'd prefer that. Thanks guys, regardless of when you do it!!!!
1 hour once per 5-10 days
If possible I would like to hear 2 shows a week around 30 minutes in length
bool isListenersHappy = (minutesPerShow == 60 && nrOfTimesPerWeek >= 1);
All of the above.. I want more!!!. You guys rock!
Twice a week. Each podcast is about 1 hour long.
Other

vote

How many years of professional programming experience do you have?

Less than 1 year
1-2 years
2-5 years
6-10 years
11+ years

vote

Should this episode have a survey?

vote

Are you better off spending more time learning learning specific frameworks, or the underlying technologies?

Frameworks - I'll dive into the underlying as needed
Underlying Technologies - You gotta walk before you can run!

vote

What is your favorite programming language?

C#
Java
Python
Perl
Ruby
Javascript
PHP
Groovy
php
php
C++ (wild guess: the "others" will win this one...)
Groovy
Scala
Fortran
Lisp
CFML (Lucee, ColdFusion)
c++
C++
apl
PHP
PL/SQL
Transact SQL
C
C
Scala
Other

vote

How important is dependency management?

Super! How can you keep it up if you can't set it up.
Important, but I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.
Meh, maybe after I close out a few of these tickets...
Ain't no body got time for dat!
PHP
Groovy
php
php
C++ (wild guess: the "others" will win this one...)
Groovy
Scala
Fortran
Lisp
Super important, and you do what little you can to avoid dependencies, but honestly not much you can do since it's mostly an artifact of the frameworks and technologies you use. Go Asp.net 5! Too bad I only work on native desktop apps, so I'm pretty screwed. Hahhaha
Other

vote

What's Better...Versions or Date Stamps?

Major, Minor, and Patch Versions (Semantic Versioning)
Date Stamp Versioning
Mixture of Semantic Versioning and Date Stamps

vote

Why do these guys keep forgetting to think up a survey?

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3
Destiny: The Taken King
Halo 5: Guardians

vote

OK, who's fault is it for not having a survey this time? It's probably ...

Allen's fault.
Joe's fault.
Michael's fault.

vote

Which is the most important to study?

Unit Testing
Language features
Algorithm Complexity
Design Patterns

vote

Which series is more awesome?

Star Wars
Star Trek

vote

Watch the video. How would you cross the puddle?

Hop around the side, who knows what's under there!?
No wake zone! Slow and steady wins the race.
Damn the torpedos, full steam ahead!

vote

Who's the best?

Galadriel
Leia
Neither

vote

Do you leave a trail of commits in case you need them later, or do you prefer to keep things tidy?

I squash because I care (squash)
Everyone can learn from my path (don't squash)
Wait. What?
I suppose, but only if it's convenient...

vote

Bash on Windows

The next big awesome?
Much ado about nothing?

vote

What type of development do you prefer?

Front End / UI
Middle Tier / Server
Backend / Database
Full Stack

vote

In last episode’s poll, only 1% of you identified as preferring front-end-only work. Why is that number so low?

CSS
Lines have blurred, front-end working is leaking into the back
Full stack is where it's at
Irrelevant, the podcast poll demographics are skewed!

vote

What is the hardest part of landing the technical job?

The job requirements.
Dealing with recruiters.
The technical interview.
Racism/Sexism/Ageism - discrimination of some form.
Location, location, location.
Just getting the call back about the job, period.

vote

If you were stranded on an island and you could have only one programming book, which would it be?

Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction
Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship
Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software
Head First Design Patterns
Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code
Working Effectively With Legacy Code
Introduction to Algorithms
The Pragmatic Programmer
Cracking the Coding Interview
The Art of Unit Testing
The Art of Computer Programming (all volumes)
The Practice of Programming
Clean Coder : A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers
How to Survive on a Deserted Island: Tim O'Shei
Rapid development - sidsavara
Adaptive Code via C# - Hall
1
I've read none of these and want to see recommendations
Joel on Software
Other

vote

What’s your favorite source of caffeine?

Coffee: Fancy stuff, Espresso, Cold Brew, etc
Coffee: Like, for Normal People
The Hard Stuff: 5 Hour Energy, Caffeine Pills
Energy Drinks: Red Bull / Monster, etc
Soda: Mountain Dew, Dr. Pepper, Coke Zero, etc
None: My body is a temple / wonderland
Tea: Hot, cold, all the tea!

vote

Do you regularly attend meetups or conferences?

Yes, I need to get out of my cave every now and then
No, ain't nobody got time for that
No, I live light years away from any meetups / conferences

vote

What is your preferred work environment?

Love me some cubicles
Open Floor Plan, collaboration!
Home office (pants optional)
A work office, with a door
Coffee / Tea Shoppe

vote

Do you put stickers on your laptop?

No. I've got class and I'm an adult. Stickers are for kids.
STICKERS!!! STICKERS ALL THE THINGS!!!

vote

New Macbook Pro with Touch Bar...Is it?

Amazing - Apple's done it again! They've predicted the future, and Touch Bar is it!
Horrible - Give me back my function keys!
Jury is out - I'll wait and see what others are saying before I pass judgement.

vote

When you need to add new 1:1 columns to a SQL table, but they only apply to a subset of that data do you...

Add it to the table, no reason to breakout a 1:1 relationship
Create a new table for it, keep things nice and tight!
Developers shouldn't be modifying schema!
SQL? *NO*body does sql anymore!

vote

Do you listen to anything while you code?

Music, because I gotta get my jam on.
Podcasts, how else do you think I'm listening to this?
Audio books, because the book is always better than the movie.
TV, how else am I going to stay up to date on Westworld?
The office background, because I'm actually listening to my cubicle neighbors' gossip.
White noise, rain, the ocean, any repetitive noise to drown out reality
Who has time to listen to anything when I've got all of these fires to put out?

vote

When PC gaming a console-like game, what is your preferred weapon of choice?

Xbox Controller
Playstation Controller
Steam Controller
Anything made by Logitech!
Mouse and Keyboard - WASD 4 Life

vote

When you need to add new 1:1 columns to a SQL table, but they only apply to a subset of that data do you...

Add it to the table, no reason to breakout a 1:1 relationship
Create a new table for it, keep things nice and tight!
Developers shouldn't be modifying schema!
SQL? *NO*body does sql anymore!

vote

How much of your code is covered by Unit Tests?

What unit test? Oh, um, zero.
Those old things? Its probably like 25% or less.
We try but we're somewhere between 25 to 50% depending on the project.
We're on top of things. Our tests cover 75% of our code.
We're amazing. Our code is covered 100% by unit tests. And sprinkled with the glittery dust of a unicorn's breathe.
Wait, work? Or personal? Work, um not so much. Personal, you'd be proud.

vote

What type of overall development floats your boat?

Gaming - I want to make something people play with..
Business apps - I want to create apps that solve real business problems...
Machine learning - data science gets my brain moving...
Dev Ops - I want to make software delivery smooth as silk...
Big data - I want to pour through all the bits...
Hacking - reverse engineering is how I butter my bread...
Frameworks - I want to build the next great tool for developers...

vote

Why did you start programming?

Needed to fulfill a business need
Wanted to personalize my MySpace theme
Took a class in school and thought it was awesome
2 make gamez!
I like getting paid to sit

vote

How fast is your _personal_ Internet connection?

Less than 5 Mbps (I <3 DSL)
<= 25 Mbps
<= 50 Mbps
<= 75 Mbps
<= 100 Mbps
> 100 Mbps
1 Gbps (Fiber FTW.)

vote

Which (programming) language are you most envious of?

C
C#
C++
F#
Go
Haskell
Java
JavaScript
Python
R
Ruby
Swift
Typescript
VB.NET

vote

How cool is your company?

Extremely cool! They pay for my conferences!
Very cool. They give me time off for conferences.
They suck. I'm lucky if I get my time off approved.

vote

What is your headphone style of choice while coding?

On-Ear - Great sound in a compact shape
Over-Ear - Sweet pillows of sound
In-Ear - I need all of the sound in my head
Earbuds - Because the pain is worth it

vote

Did you know what invariant meant?

Yep.
Nope.

vote

At what speed do you listen to podcasts?

.5x
1x
1.5x
2x

vote

How many monitors do you use?

Just one.
Two is the minimum.
Three. Like. A. Boss.
More than three. Because if it's worth doing, it's worth over-doing.

vote

You have 4 near identical job applicants (quadriplets) - they differ only in how they learned to code. Who do you hire?

6 week bootcamp-er
Bachelors degree graduate (state university)
1 Year Job Experience
Frequent committer to prestigous open source projects

vote

iPhone 8 ...

It's the iPhone we've always wanted.
Evolutionary, not revolutionary.
Time to switch to Android.

vote

Having multiple monitors is great. But are they ...

A handicap?
A hindrance?
A must have?

vote

How many different podcasts do you subscribe to?

There can only be one. (Coding Blocks obviously)
Less than 10, YOLO
Less than 25, Cull the weak
Less than 50, Pro status
Less than 100, NPR is a second family to you

vote

How often should your employer replace your computer?

Every 3 yrs
Every 2 yrs
Every year
Who stays at any employer long enough to have this problem?
Wait, they're supposed to replace it?
Greater than 3 yrs

vote

How often do you replace your phone?

Every year. Gotta have the latest tech.
Every other year.
Not until it breaks. And maybe not even then.

vote

Do you trust your family to buy the tech you want?

I trust them. Why wouldn't I?
I'm hoping for the best. But please include gift receipts.
No way. Even with a very specific list, things will go sideways.

vote

How many developers are at your company?

Just me!
About 5 - Like Captain Planet
Closer to the 20 mark, headphones are required
100, crazy right?
1,000+ Enterprise!!

vote

How often do you shutdown your computer?

Shutdown daily.
Every week.
Every month.
Only when the updates force me.
Who shutdowns their computer?
I don't shutdown often. But when I do, it's because of a BSOD or kernel panic.
Only right before taking some much needed time off.

vote

Is it OK for a site to open links in a new tab/window for you?

Absolutely. No one's got time for holding extra keys!
Yes, but only for links to external sites.
Yes, but the site better warn me first.
No, nope, never, nuh-uh. That's what CTRL(or CMD)+Click is for!

vote

What is the oldest code that you actively, regularly work with?

Less than 1 year. Green as can be!
1-3 years. Was there life before Angular?
3-10 years. Back when JavaScript only ran in the browser.
10-15 years. Pre-jQuery, we had to getElementById back then!
More than 15 years old. Pre-Stack Overflow?!?!

vote

Have you ever made a mix tape?

Does a playlist count? Oh, it doesn't? Then no, I haven't.
Man, I got my technique down and everything. I know exactly when to play Bon Jovi's five words ... yes I have

vote

When you are not coding for work/school, in your free time do you ...

Eat. Sleep. Code. Repeat. Coding is all that matters.
Gotta be well rounded. Get outside. Ride a bike. Climb a mountain. Hike a trail.
Netflix. Gotta binge-watch *everything*.
Rocket League! Or [INSERT VIDEO GAME TITLE HERE]

vote

Do you pay attention to 3rd party licenses?

Yes. Because my company forces me to.
Yes. Because it's a good habit.
No. Wait, you actually read those things?
No. Wait, am I supposed to?

vote

Do you participate in open source projects?

Yes, but only on my own projects.
Yes, but only when I'm trying to beef up the résumé.
Yes, but it's documentation, not code.
Yes, but I only participate in projects owned by others.
Yes. I have some of my own projects _and_ I also participate in projects owned by others.
Man. I'd love to. But dang, who has the time?

vote

How important is Docker?

Very, Docker is the new Git
Eh, Containers are awesome, but Docker itself…
Nah, this is just a stepping stone to something much bigger
Nope, I build and deploy from a laptop

vote

Do you use Docker in your current dev life?

Yes, so I can install and remove software while keeping my system clean.
Yes, it's part of my build chain.
Yes, it's part of my production deployment.
Ain't nobody got time for that.

vote

How important is it that developers have an understanding of computer science-y topics?

Uh no.
Uh, yeah...I guess it's good.
It's not mission critical, but I prefer working with people who know their O from their Theta.
* Super important, and I can prove it mathmatically...if you accept my base case!

vote

Do you regularly evaluate your weaknesses in an effort to strengthen them?

OMG. Daily.
I try to pick up a new skill or get better at an existing one every few months.
Yeah, but realistically, probably only once or twice a year.
I learn what I want to learn, when I want to learn it.
No, that's why I listen to you guys.
Why? I already know everything I need to know

vote

Now that you had some time to digest the news, how do you feel about Microsoft's acquisition of GitHub?

Very excited! Looking forward to the awesome things Microsoft will add to GitHub.
I'm concerned but not enough to do anything about it. Yet.
I don't care. At all. Should I?
OMG the sky is falling. Why? How could we let this happen?
Already packed up my code and moved to GitLab.

vote

What is your most productive season?

Spring. Best way to avoid the pollen!
Summer. Let me stay behind my keyboard in the nice air conditioned room.
Fall. The sky, er, leaves are falling. Safer to stay inside.
Winter. Olaf scares me, I'm not going out there.
Seasons? We don't have seasons here!!

vote

What is your most productive time of day?

Morning. Gotta get my work done before the rest of the office gets in.
Midday. Let everyone else go to lunch. I'm getting this commit merged.
Evening. I'll let the traffic die down while I close one more ticket.
Night. Now that all of the meetings are over, I can finally start my day.

vote

What is your favorite book type?

Hard cover. I want to protect my invest.
Paperback. I like to curl the cover back with one hand while I read it.
eBook. It's the only chance I won't lose it.
Books? I ain't reading no books.

vote

Does having multiple monitors improve your productivity?

Absolutely. And on the bright side (pun), I get to work on my tan from all of the extra UV light.
No. But it can be a nice luxury.
It depends on the codebase. The smellier the code, the more monitors I need. That and air fresheners.

vote

How's your math?

There's an app for that.
Was great...in primary school.
I can tip 20% comfortably.
I can still find the area under a curve.
I can still ln(e) with the best of them!

vote

What's your preferred password manager?

1Password
LastPass
KeePass + Dropbox
RoboForm
Keychain
I just use the same 3 passwords everywhere.
Whatever is built into the browser.

vote

What's your social platform of choice?

Facebook. For the old world.
Twitter. It's the best way to catch up on my covfefe.
Snapchat. Because a picture is worth a thousand words.
Instagram. Because a picture is worth a thousand hashtags.
LinkedIn. It's all about keepin' it profesh.
Google Plus. I like the dust and cobwebs.
Social? Get off my lawn kid! What? You *want* the gov't to know everything about you?

vote

Who is your favorite virtual assistant?

Alexa. The OG of assistants.
Google Assistant. Because accuracy matters.
Siri. Who needs accuracy with looks this good?
Cortana. Hipsterific. I only like things no one else likes.

vote

What do you value most in a job?

Pay. It's all about the Benjamins.
Tech stack. I need to remain interested.
Commute. Or the lack thereof. I mean, I love listening to Coding Blocks and all, but a new set of tires every month is ridiculous.
Location, location, location. Just like real estate.
Team. I need to be surrounded by people better than me so I can grow.
Industry. I want the type of problems I solve to matter. To me.
Benefits. I like to take off for the summer.
Work. Life. Balance. I have a life outside of the office.

vote

What do you want to focus on improving in 2019?

Front-End, there's a 3p service for everything now.
Back-End, cuz Flexbox...done.
Persistence is king, data data data.
Algorithms and data structures, can't go wrong with fundamentals.
Clean Code, master the tactical before the strategic.
Architecture, I've ascended to higher levels of abstraction.
DevOps, good luck doing anything without me!

vote

How do you plan to spend your time off this holiday season?

Spending time with the family because the holidays are all about the memories.
I'm not avoiding the family, I'm building my next great project.
Escaping the family _and_ the keyboard.
What time off?

vote

How good were the holidays to you?

Awesome. Got everything I hoped for.
I got things I didn't even ask for.
It was good. I got everything I purchased.
Glad to be back at work.
I didn't get squat.

vote

How much time do you spend coding outside of work?

Nada. I don't write code for free.
Until I go to bed.
I take the weekend off. Otherwise I'm writing code.
Like a sine wave, I go through phases. Sometimes more. Sometimes less.

vote

What do you think of JAMStack?

It's like, the future, yo.
Eh, I'll let this front-end fad pass and maybe grab on to the next one.
You can pry the back-end from my cold dead hands.

vote

What interests you the most?

Learning the low level nuts and bolts of how computers and OSes work, i.e. the lowest possible level, can I build my own hardware or OS?
Or the highest possible level, i.e. subjects like formal algorithms, machine learning, artificial intelligence, etc.
Those other options are nice, but I enjoy prototyping and experimenting with all the things, broadening my horizons.

vote

How many conferences do you go to per year?

I usually average 1-3 conferences a year.
Somewhere in the range of 4-6.
More than 6 but nothing crazy.
I go to all of them. That I can afford. Or my company can afford.
I travel all over speaking at conferences, so I go to too many.
Zero. I don't like them, they're too expensive, they take too long, they're too far away, or some other similar reason.

vote

Who is your favorite cloud provider?

Amazon AWS baby. The original gangsta of cloud providers.
Microsoft Azure. Remember when they called it Windows Azure? Awkward.
Google Cloud. Because I also need them to know how I cloud.
IBM Cloud. I'm all about the business.
Rackspace Cloud. Big enough to be a big deal. Small enough to care.
Linode. You gotta love that pricing.
Vultr. Bare metal for bare prices.
Digital Ocean. A refreshing "droplet".
Other. Because how did you not know about my dog's groomer's dad's side cloud business.

vote

What's your favorite time to listen to podcasts?

During my commute. What else am I supposed to pay attention to?
While I work. I need an escape.
While I exercise. Nothing better than staying physically _and_ mentally fit.
Every. Waking. Moment.
I wish my schedule was that routine.

vote

Did you improve on the things you wanted to for 2018?

I did, as well as improving on additional things.
I was able to focus on my 2018 goals and improve on them.
I crushed some. Failed at others.
No, dang it.
Wait. I was supposed to set some goals?

vote

Why don't you go to conferences?

Too expensive. Gotta think about that ROI.
Too far. I could finish an entire Coding Blocks podcast just getting there.
What about both of the above? Oh, that's this option.
But I do go to conferences. Why can't I participate in the survey?

vote

What is your preferred type of language to spend most of your day in?

Dynamically typed languages like JavaScript or Python. I can't be bothered to compile. I catch my errors at runtime.
Statically typed languages like Java, C, or C#. I'd like to say that my errors are caught at compile time. But sadly not always.
Functional languages like Haskell or F#. Here's a quarter kid, get a real programming language.
SQL. If you're not working in sets, you're wasting your time with one-offs.

vote

Do you discuss podcasts with your friends or co-workers?

Are you kidding? That's all we talk about.
Absolutely. They need all of the help they can get.
Absolutely. I need all of the help I can get.
No. It's my secret, super power. They can't know where my tips come from.

vote

How much data do you use per month for your home ISP?

Less than 250GB.
Less than 500GB.
Less than 1TB.
No idea, unlimited plan bro.
You'd have to ask my neighbor.

vote

Navigation