Software-Technology – Page 3 – Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

29 Guidelines for Successful Pair Programming

By Scott J. Pearson | September 23, 2025September 23, 2025 by Scott J. Pearson

Among software engineers, pair programming occurs when two coders join together to write code together. It’s an incredibly efficient and focused means of knowledge transfer. However, developers are also known for having prickly, sometimes difficult personalities, and these personal hangups can get in the way of effective pair programming. Author Oozie Ligus has logged over 700 hours of time pair programming and offers his advice on how to build an effective relationship. Following “extreme programming”…

Software-Technology

The Essence of Software: Why Concepts Matter for Great Design

By Scott J. Pearson | July 25, 2025July 25, 2025 by Scott J. Pearson

In today’s software design, much focus hones in on users’ experience with the interface. Teams make large efforts to make that experience as pleasing as possible so as not to drive away customers. However, they don’t place as much emphasis on the conceptual nature of software – what concepts users extract from the software and what concepts the software requires for effective use. Since the advent of the GUI, today’s software conveys intellectual matter that…

Cybersecurity Software-Technology

JWT Handbook

By Scott J. Pearson | July 24, 2025July 24, 2025 by Scott J. Pearson

For those unaware (like me earlier this week), JWT stands for JSON Web Token. JSONs are a standard formats computers on the Internet exchange data in. JWTs are a standardized way to pass encrypted information from a client to a server to prevent tampering. To provide security, it uses modern encryption tools along with a signature and information stored in the header of a web transaction. Thus, web users cannot tamper with information for malicious…

Artificial Intelligence Indie

Computational Linguistics & Artificial Intelligence

By Scott J. Pearson | July 19, 2025November 8, 2025 by Scott J. Pearson

I work in software applications in biomedical research. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a natural interest impacting my work and team. I’m always looking for thoughtful explorations of the topic. I stumbled upon this book on Amazon and thought I’d give the audiobook a try. I’m glad I did. Though Daniel Dinkelman’s work is far from perfect, it provided a helpful survey of the research landscape across the landscape in computational linguistics and AI. It concisely…

Indie Software-Technology

Software Architecture for Developers: Designing Scalable & Maintainable Systems for the Real World

By Scott J. Pearson | July 9, 2025July 9, 2025 by Scott J. Pearson

This book provides a succinct overview of the subjects a software architect interacts with on a regular basis in today’s world. That is, it portrays a high-level snapshot of the field in 2024. It summarizes what the current technologies are and lists the different conceptual frameworks software technology uses. Microservices, cloud computing, software as a function, and the packages that oversee it fill the lists that Steve Abrams provides. Its main weakness, however, is that…

Healthcare Kids Software-Technology

I’m a Biomedical Informatics Expert Now!

By Scott J. Pearson | July 7, 2025July 6, 2025 by Scott J. Pearson

As someone in his mid-forties, I’m not in the intended audience for this book. Like the author, I went to medical school and work in biomedical informatics. I love figuring out how to help scientists and researchers help advance their ideas to better help patients. Having met and worked with Kevin Johnson, I can say that he’s the perfect person to write this book. He’s super smart but still approachable. He has a consistently great…

Software-Technology

Inviting Disaster: Lessons from the Edge of Technology

By Scott J. Pearson | July 6, 2025July 6, 2025 by Scott J. Pearson

In an age of advanced technology, bugs and glitches have become a part of modern existence. We entrust complex machines like airplanes with our lives without so much as batting an eye. Nonetheless, especially when a technology is being pioneered or developed, there’s no way to escape mistakes… and those mistakes are sometimes fatal and tragic. Technology writer James Chiles describes himself as obsessed with tracing the history of technological mistakes. In this book, he…

Software-Technology

Eloquent JavaScript: A Modern Introduction to Programming

By Scott J. Pearson | June 22, 2025June 22, 2025 by Scott J. Pearson

First, let me note this review is for the third edition, and a fourth edition recently came out. The fourth edition covers recent updates to JavaScript (also known as ECMAScript). I would have bought the fourth edition had I realized it when I made the purchase, but recent JavaScript language updates have not been dramatic. After I finished the third edition, I was able to read about them in a few minutes online to supplement…

Indie Software-Technology

Advanced JavaScript Unleashed: Master Advanced JavaScript Concepts like Prototypes, Symbols, Generators & More

By Scott J. Pearson | June 4, 2025June 4, 2025 by Scott J. Pearson

Like many web developers, I learned about modern JavaScript/ECMAScript soon after it came out in 2015. JavaScript is the programming language that has powered interactive webpages since Netscape Navigator was a thing. Now, it’s the world’s most used programming language for all sorts of non-browser-based applications, including mobile apps, web servers, and full-stack development. Therefore, understanding how it works and why it works becomes a priority for most software engineers. Grasping the implementation details can…

Leadership Management-Business Software-Technology

Leading Effective Engineering Teams: Lessons for Individual Contributors & Managers from 10 Years at Google

By Scott J. Pearson | May 19, 2025May 19, 2025 by Scott J. Pearson

This book fills a gap in literature about technology leadership. Many books on leadership exist; likewise, many books on approaching technology from the perspective of business leadership exist; however, not a lot of books talk about how to lead from a technologist’s angle. People working in software are usually really smart people. They know and respect “game” when they see competence and mastery in their field. But mentorship from books or from seasoned leaders is…