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cjcenizal

1,114 karma · joined March 12, 2013

I'm a UI engineer and engineering manager, located in Los Angeles.

www.cenizal.com

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cjcenizal··on Ask HN: How do you protect your codebase from being stolen by engineers?
Spend a hundred bucks and have a lawyer draft a contract for them to sign. You could also see if LegalZoom offers anything like this.
cjcenizal··on Ask HN: Is it ok to create/start writing code for a startup while employeed
You should read your employment agreement. If it states that you can't do that, and you signed it, then you're giving your employer grounds to fire you and sue you. You could always ask your employer -- they are in a better position to answer your question than I am. :)
cjcenizal··on Online adverts 'exploit homeless for sex'
This article describes how some people's best survival option is to give control of their body to someone else. I think anyone with empathy would agree that's a bad thing.
cjcenizal··on Why Japan’s Rail Workers Point at Things
Sometimes if I find myself task saturated, I'll say to myself something like, "OK, what am I doing. We need X, Y, and Z. X is most important, so let's do X," as a way of regaining focus. Then again I work from home, so if I didn't think aloud from time to time, my vocal cords would rust from disuse. :)
cjcenizal··on Reverse Culture Shock
Perhaps not culture shock per se, but when I fly back to LA, I am always shocked at how gray and brown everything is from the air.
cjcenizal··on A subterranean world of water offers a glimpse of Ramla’s past
This article reminds me of a book written by Kim Stanley Robinson, "The Years of Rice and Salt". It's a historical fiction which explores a history in which the bubonic plague wiped out Europe, precluding Western civilization as we know it. The cultural and religious vacuum left behind is filled by Islam, Buddhism, and the Chinese dynasties. Robinson explores the evolution of humanity over the next 600 years under these influences in beautiful detail -- it's an amazing read!
cjcenizal··on How I Write Tests
Have a look at the unit tests for the components and services in https://github.com/smaato/ui-framework. We designed the test suites to explore and explain how the interface of each module works. So reading the tests is one way to get a feel for how each module is designed to be used.
cjcenizal··on Tyrus Wong, ‘Bambi’ Artist Thwarted by Racial Bias, Dies at 106
Are you familiar with Eyvind Earle? He created the beautiful backgrounds in Sleeping Beauty and I have a feeling you'd appreciate his work too.
cjcenizal··on Ask HN: Switching from developer to project manager. What to keep in mind?
I've never made that switch so I can't give advice on how to PM effectively (that probably is also very team- and project-dependent). But I imagine it might be a challenge to completely leave the engineer mindset behind. So I'd be careful to avoid talking with engineers as if you're still one of them, e.g. discussing technical challenges in depth, suggesting solutions, reviewing code. Stay focused on your new role as PM to avoid any confusion and keep the team humming along. Good luck!
cjcenizal··on Hiring via referrals isn't great for diversity
No.
cjcenizal··on Bootstrap 4 drops IE9 support and goes full flexbox
Also, http://www.flexboxpatterns.com
cjcenizal··on Dashboard Ambush [slides]
Sounds like you should check out "Don't make me think" by Steve Krug! It's a quick read and contains very simple effective advice on how to make your UI usable. He outlines ways to do very cheap user testing to add objectivity to the decisions you're describing.
cjcenizal··on Female monkeys use wile to rally troops
Willingness to fight seems to be a successful genetic trait for them. If you don't fight, your troop starves. I don't think "manipulation" has anything to do with it... if the troop doesn't pass on successful genes, the troop dies. So of course the fighters are the ones that mate!
cjcenizal··on Cracking the Coding Interview Tutorial
"Wow this is great. I think you may know more about this situation than I do! Could you tell me more about X?"
cjcenizal··on Qualities of clean code
Thanks for making this suggestion! This is a good habit to fall into. It has no downside for you as a writer; only upside.
cjcenizal··on Bulma – A modern CSS framework based on Flexbox
For anyone who's interested in some flexbox-based patterns for building UI components, take a gander at flexboxpatterns.com, too.
cjcenizal··on Tips from the Pragmatic Programmer (2000)
I think this correlates strongly with the idea of "Defaulting to Yes". If someone has an idea or a suggestion, your default position should be, "Let's try it and find out" instead of the unfortunately more common "That won't work because..." response.

Discussion is good (because ideas are surfaced and knowledge is shared) but long discussions are bad (because action is delayed). Action is good because that's how you learn things. By adopting an "Let's try it" attitude, you can move from discussion to action more quickly.

cjcenizal··on PR converts the Three.js codebase to ES2015 modules
https://github.com/facebook/codemod
cjcenizal··on Idiomatic React Testing Patterns
I built this testing tool at a previous employer: https://github.com/smaato/react-test-kit. It's very very simple, it just exposes jQuery-like methods for querying the DOM (and internally uses Sizzle).

Here's an example of how we used react-test-kit to test a SearchBox component: https://github.com/smaato/ui-framework/blob/develop/src/fram...

Here's the interactive component example: http://smaato.github.io/ui-framework/#/searchbox

cjcenizal··on Idiomatic React Testing Patterns
I've found the best testing pattern is to test the interface of the component, not the implementation.

This means treating the component as an opaque function with inputs (props) and outputs (the rendered result). Your tests just need to that verify that different prop values result in the DOM changes or callbacks that you expect.

cjcenizal··on Ask HN: What's your favorite way to save money?
This is a great strategy, and I use it too. I've heard it referred to as "paying yourself first" since you're treating your future self as your #1 creditor.
cjcenizal··on Typography for User Interfaces
I'm honestly not sure what the author's referring to, but if you consider things like a table of contents, page numbers, indices, footnotes, and reference sections to be part of a book's GUI, then we've had GUIs almost as long as we've had books. Though I admit it's a bit of a stretch. :)
cjcenizal··on It’s cheaper to build multiple native applications than one responsive web app
Pro-tip: You can make your article sound like it's been written by a grown-up if you find/replace all instances of the word "fucking" and "fuck" with "".
cjcenizal··on Perceived Legitimacy: How to Visually Prepare Your Startup for Fundraising
I nailed most of this list but didn't have, you know, users: atomicarmies.com
cjcenizal··on Entrpreneurship Means I Give Up
You're not offering a counterpoint. Try adding something constructive to the conversation.
cjcenizal··on Programmers are not different, they need simple UIs
I love the rise in appreciation for a solid user experience for programmers these days. I've heard this referred to as DX (Developer Experience).

I have such a feeling of empowerment and productivity when I'm working with well-designed tools and APIs, with interfaces that fit into my mind the way the handle of a hammer fits perfectly into my hand.

cjcenizal··on Our “No Asshole” Rule (2014)
I'm sure their intentions are good but the approach comes across as facile. What's an asshole?

Instead of saying "no assholes", just list the behaviors that define assholes and just say "don't do these things."

cjcenizal··on What happens when you type Google.com into your browser and press enter?
Yep, I find it to be a terrible proxy for the question, "Which parts of the HTTP request-response cycle interest you?" Please, please, please, if that is your question, just simply ask that question. It gives the interviewee the opportunity to steer the conversation in a useful direction (especially if the answer is "Well, I'm not really interested in the details of that, but let me tell you what I am interested in..." which would not be possible with the original question, without sounding rude).

The problem with the original question is that it masks your true question and makes it really difficult to understand what the discussion is about. If someone is used to answering questions succinctly, directly, and usefully (which are valuable traits in a productive engineering environment) then it's really difficult to formulate a clear answer on the spot, regardless of your depth of knowledge. The best response is probably the question, "Exactly which part are you interested in, and in relation to what kinds of problems?"

cjcenizal··on How to Center in CSS
Yup! I made flexboxpatterns.com, which contains many examples related to centering. Flexbox + PostCSS for cross-browser support and you're good to go.
cjcenizal··on Ask HN: What are examples of GitHub repositories with high code quality?
https://github.com/smaato/ui-framework

UI Framework built with React and SCSS. The components are nicely modularized, have unit tests, and we put a lot of emphasis on code readability, clear names for things, a scalable folder structure, and intuitive interfaces.

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