# specialties (blogs) — RSS Amplifier Recent posts from the 3 feeds in the RSS Amplifier directory that cover specialties. Page: Feed: --- ## [Eight Code Virtues (draft)](https://agileotter.blogspot.com/2026/08/eight-code-virtues-draft.html) _2026-08-19 · Agileotter · Agile Otter Blog_ Some time ago, Jeff Langr and I came up with seven virtues for code in Agile in a Flash , and we wrote more about them over the years. The original set is: Working, Unique, Simple, Clear, Easy, Developed, and Brief. The virtues give us some words for what we like about good code, and they've been remarkably stable, with two exceptions: 1. I've added the 8th Virtue ("coherence") 2. I've dropped the… ## [Progressive Admission Pattern - story slicing](https://agileotter.blogspot.com/2026/08/progressive-admission-pattern-for-data.html) _2026-08-11 · Agileotter · Agile Otter Blog_ I don't know if there is another name for this pattern, but I've been calling it "progressive admission" and using it for many years. It is a story splitting skill, related to the "walking skelton" AKA "tracer bullet" technique. Say you are about to build a program that reads from a message queue and processes messages. Start Closed The first stage is to build the end-to-end system (reader,… ## [2006 "Sooner Not Faster" article](https://agileotter.blogspot.com/2026/07/2006-sooner-not-faster-article.html) _2026-07-15 · Agileotter · Agile Otter Blog_ This is a blog I wrote on ButUncleBob (the Object Mentor blog) in 2006, republished here verbatim because that blog is not always available and because it still matters. Sooner, Not Faster There is a widely-held myth (well, near-myth) that Agile software development is about "going faster". It's really not. Oh, you might go a little faster, but that's not what it's about. To go faster, one will… ## [Transnational fear and care: Mayan women in Guatemala respond to US immigration crackdowns](https://justruralfutures.substack.com/p/transnational-fear-and-care-mayan) _2026-06-30 · Rural Geographies · Just Rural Futures_ Anika M. Rice, Phd Candidate in Geography, University of Wisconsin-Madison ## [Do agents think you're doing agile wrong?](https://agileotter.blogspot.com/2026/06/do-agents-think-youre-doing-agile-wrong.html) _2026-06-16 · Agileotter · Agile Otter Blog_ WARNING: this is an AI generated article -- but that's on purpose. Without any priming or preparation, I asked a chatbot about sprints and tickets, and got this as an answer. The Question: My team wants us to split up all the features into tickets and assign them at sprint planning, so they all have enough work to do and know what they'll be working on. Is this a good system? The Answer: Usually,… ## [What Are the Best Dark Roast Coffees Right Now? 10 Picks for 2026](https://www.coffeereview.com/best-dark-roast-coffees/) _2026-06-15 · Kim Westerman · Coffee Review_ Dark roasts have had a rough decade in specialty circles. The rise of third-wave coffee culture brought with it a corrective skepticism toward the charred, ashy cups that defined second-wave specialty coffee at the turn of this century. Today, light and medium roasts have become the house style of the discerning and the vehicle through \[…\] The post What Are the Best Dark Roast Coffees Right Now?… ## [Sooner - And sooner still](https://agileotter.blogspot.com/2026/06/sooner-and-sooner-still.html) _2026-06-06 · Agileotter · Agile Otter Blog_ I published my first post on Sooner, not Faster in 2006 on Object Mentor's blog ("But Uncle Bob!" was the title), a wiki I was encouraged by Bob to use daily. Later this theme had been picked up by many people. Ryan expanded it to "Sooner, Safer, Smarter" and I appreciate that also. I've had years, decades in fact, to be working through what it means to deliver sooner and more often. I've been… ## [Flow theory in short](https://agileotter.blogspot.com/2026/06/the-unifying-theory-in-short.html) _2026-06-05 · Agileotter · Agile Otter Blog_ Companies often build their software development as a series of handoffs . Every handoff is a queue . Queues determine how long work waits . The busier the person receiving queued work is, the deeper the queue becomes , and the longer work waits to be served. A common mistake is to obsess over developer cycle time (ticket closure) and ignore the rest of the process. For flow reasons, it is better… ## [The Faros Whiplash and The Systems View](https://agileotter.blogspot.com/2026/06/draft-faros-whiplash-and-systems-view.html) _2026-06-03 · Agileotter · Agile Otter Blog_ The Faros report on AI-assisted development has been rattling around in my head for a few days. The story it tells is a strange one: Teams are producing more code. More tasks are being completed. More pull requests are being created. And yet : waiting times are up, review times are up, lead times are up, incidents are up, and bugs are up. The picture shows a development process that's getting… ## [Time for an 8th Virtue: Coherence](https://agileotter.blogspot.com/2026/06/time-for-8th-virtue-coherence.html) _2026-06-03 · Agileotter · Agile Otter Blog_ I've written repeatedly about the 7 Code Virtues, and they have been reliable guides for me, as well as a language for describing goodness in code. When I started applying this agentically, I realised that I may have been wrong about ordering (as I suspected all along) and adjusted to 'Working is prime, the rest are equal', and this has served me well. The agentic code still wasn't going as well… ## [Auto-trade Cross-Exchange Gaps (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/FSiBlZcGIdGj) _2026-06-03 · **Sponsored**_ Find cross-exchange spreads, backtest strategies, and execute automatically with risk controls. ## [When Aid Leaves the Village: Rural Zambia, USAID Withdrawal, and the Geography of Loss](https://justruralfutures.substack.com/p/when-aid-leaves-the-village-rural) _2026-05-28 · Rural Geographies · Just Rural Futures_ Samuel King, California State University, Long Beach ## [Agile, YAGNI, Smaller Steps, Bikes and Automobiles...](https://agileotter.blogspot.com/2026/05/agile-yagni-smaller-steps-bikes-and.html) _2026-05-27 · Agileotter · Agile Otter Blog_ There is a commonly shown drawing, which came from a great Kniberg post (of course), explaining how every iteration in an agile development method produces something usable, and the capability of it grows over time. Rather than building parts to assemble later, as typically is done in function decomposition and bottom-up building. I reproduced the image here, to introduce the topic better. Of… ## [A Fight for Affordable Energy in the Rural American West](https://justruralfutures.substack.com/p/a-fight-for-affordable-energy-in) _2026-05-01 · Rural Geographies · Just Rural Futures_ Annika Hirmke, PhD Candidate, University of Colorado, Boulder ## [What rural hosts want from tourists coming to their HOME-stays](https://justruralfutures.substack.com/p/what-rural-hosts-want-from-tourists) _2026-04-11 · Rural Geographies · Just Rural Futures_ Prabhat Kumar, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India ## [Finally, Some Real Coffee Action: Decaf Coffees 2026](https://www.coffeereview.com/finally-some-real-coffee-action-decaf-coffees-2026/) _2026-04-06 · Kenneth Davids · Coffee Review_ Decaffeinated coffees are having their moment. The decaf coffee market is expanding rapidly, with projected growth of 5-7% annually over the next decade. Some estimates project the annual growth rate for decaf coffee will be up to four times that of the overall coffee market. At the 2024 US Brewers Cup finals held in Rancho Cucamonga, \[…\] The post Finally, Some Real Coffee Action: Decaf Coffees… ## [Beyond Income, Toward Flourishing: The Rural–Urban Paradox of Happiness, Life Satisfaction, and Work](https://justruralfutures.substack.com/p/beyond-income-toward-flourishing) _2026-03-30 · Rural Geographies · Just Rural Futures_ Stefano Iacus, Harvard University; Giuseppe Porro, University of Insubria; Devika Jain, Harvard University ## [Pipeline Gates Calculator](https://agileotter.blogspot.com/2026/03/pipeline-gates-populator.html) _2026-03-28 · Agileotter · Agile Otter Blog_ If you're curious how your pipeline and its pass rates affect your team's regular work, check out the Pipeline Gates Calculator . It's just a toy, but it may be enlightening. For each of your quality gates, enter the name of the gate, about how many minutes it takes to operate that quality gate (maybe automated tests run in 5 minutes, or manual test in 60\*16 minutes), and the pass rate. Name --… ## [If Aid Arrives, What Else Arrives With It: Waiting, Silence, Precarity?](https://justruralfutures.substack.com/p/if-aid-arrives-what-else-arrives) _2026-03-11 · Rural Geographies · Just Rural Futures_ Nusrat Mohana, University of Delaware ## [“When a River Forgets Its Villages: Rethinking Rural–Urban Connectivity from Surabaya’s Kalimas”](https://justruralfutures.substack.com/p/when-a-river-forgets-its-villages) _2026-03-01 · Rural Geographies · Just Rural Futures_ Stephanus Wirawan Dharmatanna ## [🌿 RGSG at AAG 2026: Sessions, Awards, and Community Events (Latest Updates & Change in Venue)](https://justruralfutures.substack.com/p/rgsg-at-aag-2026-sessions-awards) _2026-02-28 · Rural Geographies · Just Rural Futures_ Rural Geography Specialty Group (RGSG), American Association of Geographers ## [Finnish Seedboxes — Up to 20Gbps (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/y9HItJoPUgdo) _2026-02-28 · **Sponsored**_ Private Finnish seedboxes with 1–20Gbps speeds, RAID storage and 14‑day refund ## [🌿 Rural Geography AAG Update: Our RGSG Keynote Announcement & A Call for Student Paper Judges](https://justruralfutures.substack.com/p/rural-geography-aag-update-our-rgsg) _2026-02-19 · Rural Geographies · Just Rural Futures_ Lavanya Gupta, Student Representative, Rural Geography Specialty Group ## [Believing In People](https://agileotter.blogspot.com/2026/02/believing-in-people.html) _2026-02-13 · Agileotter · Agile Otter Blog_ I believe in people. People are amazingly strange creatures. They walk this ridge between depression and anxiety, and walk it with joy. The world need to be stable enough that they can grow competence and skill. When it's too stable then they become bored and depressed, because it's all easily within their skillset and there is no growth or learning; they've been there and done that. When things… ## [More Than White Noise](https://justruralfutures.substack.com/p/more-than-white-noise) _2026-02-11 · Rural Geographies · Just Rural Futures_ Christabel Devadoss ## [Do You Even Plan, Bro?](https://agileotter.blogspot.com/2026/02/do-you-even-plan-bro.html) _2026-02-06 · Agileotter · Agile Otter Blog_ Aint No Plannin' I see a lot of "agile" teams and their "planning" meetings, but if you forgive me for saying so, I've not seen a planning meeting for a long time. Typically: No plan is presented No questions about the plan are surfaced No revisions to a plan are made What actually happens then? Usually, someone loads up a list of tasks, and the entire meeting is spent assigning people to the… ## [Working in Groups: Compromises or Contributions?](https://agileotter.blogspot.com/2026/02/working-in-groups-compromises-or.html) _2026-02-03 · Agileotter · Agile Otter Blog_ Some time ago, on a social media platform, during a discussion about technology, a pundit posted a piece arguing that teamwork was a horrible idea. The Compromise Theory: His thesis is that an individual can have a great idea. When other people get involved, they have differing ideas. To settle the differences, the group has to make compromises. Every compromise is a degradation of the original… ## [Pacific Northwest Coffee Roasters: Precision, Fermentation, and a Widening Definition of “Clean”](https://www.coffeereview.com/best-pacific-northwest-coffee-roasters/) _2026-02-03 · Kim Westerman · Coffee Review_ For decades, the Pacific Northwest has occupied a particular place in the North American coffee imagination: thoughtful, origin-forward, quietly exacting. Long associated with washed coffees, restrained roast styles, and a reverence for clarity over spectacle, the region helped codify what many drinkers still think of as “clean” coffee. Today, however, that definition is expanding — \[…\] The post… ## [The Big Release Downward Spiral](https://agileotter.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-big-release-downward-spiral.html) _2026-02-03 · Agileotter · Agile Otter Blog_ The riskiness of a release is proportionate to the number of potentially untested paths in the new code. If there are a thousand new possible paths and we've only tested 4, then it's a significant risk to the installed base. If there are two, and we've tested both, then it's not risky at all. The larger a release (the more stockpiled functionality) and the less complete the characterisation via… ## [Considering Spec Driven Development](https://agileotter.blogspot.com/2026/01/considering-spec-driven-development.html) _2026-01-20 · Agileotter · Agile Otter Blog_ People are making a big deal about the new way of agentic working: Spec-Driven!!! But, wait... Big Design Up Front (BDUF) is something we tried for many years, in many companies, many times. It was proven to be a losing proposition and a bad idea. We did it in the 80s, and by 96 or so we had alternatives. If the idea of spec-driven is to fully detail a system up-front, and then use agents to… ## [Bash Variable Expansion](https://agileotter.blogspot.com/2026/01/bash-variable-expansion.html) _2026-01-17 · Agileotter · Agile Otter Blog_ This is one of those things that just doesn't stick in my head, so I'm dropping this note to remind myself. I often have trouble recalling cryptic variable names in bash, make, and perl. For my own sake, I thought I'd make a quick list of favorites and refer some sources. Maybe you'll find this useful too. Variable value, but exit if no such variable: ${var:?"error message"} Use default if… ## [Does AI help us care less?](https://agileotter.blogspot.com/2026/01/does-ai-help-us-care-less.html) _2026-01-16 · Agileotter · Agile Otter Blog_ A bit of background: I was chatting with some colleagues and friends this week about AI-augmented workflows. M was talking about having LLMs "write the epics and features" for teams. He was envisioning a flow where a PO or PM would have much less cognitive effort and could do this work alone and then hand it off to the teams for execution. Of course, the teams are using LLMs to help with testing… ## [8.1% APY Plus Free Stock (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/TumP2OY1C4VC) _2026-01-16 · **Sponsored**_ Claim 8.1% APY and up to $1,030 in SK hynix and Nvidia stock. ## [2026 Coffee Review Tasting Reports: PNW Roasters, Decaf, Co-Ferments & More](https://www.coffeereview.com/2026-coffee-review-tasting-reports-pnw-roasters-decaf-co-ferments-more/) _2026-01-01 · Kim Westerman · Coffee Review_ New Year, New Questions Specialty coffee is evolving fast — faster than trend cycles, processing methods, and high-concept café menus can keep up with. Each year, our tasting reports are our way of pausing the noise and asking: What’s actually happening in the cup? Not what’s promised, not what’s marketed — what’s there. Throughout 2026, \[…\] The post 2026 Coffee Review Tasting Reports: PNW… ## [The List: Coffee Review’s Top 50 Coffees of 2025](https://www.coffeereview.com/the-list-coffee-reviews-top-50-coffees-of-2025/) _2025-12-04 · Kim Westerman · Coffee Review_ Every November, when we sit down to assemble the list of the most exciting coffees we’ve tasted throughout the year, we’re reminded that specialty coffee is a field defined by relentless curiosity. This year reaffirmed that truth. In late 2024, our team decided to expand Coffee Review’s Top 30 list to 50 coffees, with \[…\] The post The List: Coffee Review’s Top 50 Coffees of 2025 appeared first on… ## [Shop the Top 50 Coffees of 2025](https://www.coffeereview.com/shop-for-the-top-50-coffees-of-2025/) _2025-11-28 · Ron Walters · Coffee Review_ Our mission is to help coffee lovers find and enjoy superior quality coffee. We’re pleased to help facilitate your holiday shopping and gift-giving by providing convenient links to roasters’ websites where some of the Top 50 coffees of 2025 may be available for purchase. Hurry, though, these coffees sell out very quickly. As of Saturday, \[…\] The post Shop the Top 50 Coffees of 2025 appeared first… ## [I can't test that, it uses STDOUT (Python)](https://agileotter.blogspot.com/2025/11/i-cant-test-that-it-uses-stdout-python.html) _2025-11-14 · Agileotter · Agile Otter Blog_ You're working with some Python code, and would like to write a test, but... "I can't test that - it uses STDOUT!" Okay, well, that's really not such a big problem to handle. The solutions to this problem are actually simple enough that you can apply them to many other situations that might otherwise encourage you to skip tests just this one time (again). In our modern age, we have the advantage… ## [Top 50 Coffees of 2025: Countdown Begins November 16](https://www.coffeereview.com/top-50-coffees-of-2025-countdown-begins-november-16/) _2025-10-20 · Ron Walters · Coffee Review_ Since 2013, Coffee Review editors have published an annual list of the year’s Top 30 Coffees, ranking the most exciting coffees from the thousands we cupped over the course of the year. This year, we’re expanding from 30 to 50 coffees, so we can include more of the spectacular coffees that deserve to make the cut. We \[…\] The post Top 50 Coffees of 2025: Countdown Begins November 16 appeared first… ## [What Shape Should My Code Take? (using FizzBuzz)](https://agileotter.blogspot.com/2025/10/what-shape-should-my-code-take-using.html) _2025-10-16 · Agileotter · Agile Otter Blog_ Sometime back in my early days of programming, I learned to enjoy a truth table. Fizzbuzz seems to beg for a simple truth table - the values ' should\_fizz ', and ' should\_buzz ' form up a simple tuple of booleans, and the choices are True, False - fizz False, True - buzz True, True - fizzbuzz False, False - string of the number This expresses rather neatly in Python, is efficient and pythonic, and… ## [A vimrc starter](https://agileotter.blogspot.com/2025/10/a-vimrc-starter.html) _2025-10-16 · Agileotter · Agile Otter Blog_ Here is a .vimrc file built from the recommendations in my Vim book, " Use Vim Like A Pro " (available on LeanPub ). " =================================================================== " Basic .vimrc Configuration " Based on recommendations from "Use Vim Like a Pro" " Copy this to ~/.vimrc to use " =================================================================== " Turn on all the magic,… ## [Costa Rica Coffee 2025: How the World’s Most Disciplined Origin Keeps Raising the Bar](https://www.coffeereview.com/costa-rica-coffee-2025/) _2025-10-07 · Kim Westerman · Coffee Review_ If there’s a coffee-producing country that has become the poster child for intentionality, it’s Costa Rica. Producers here have spent two decades doubling down on precision — processing, lot separation, traceability — while government policy has largely supported farmer incomes and pushed sustainability forward. Today, the result in the cup is a hedonic sensory spectrum, \[…\] The post Costa Rica… ## [Convenience Scripts for Projects](https://agileotter.blogspot.com/2025/09/convenience-scripts-for-projectsw.html) _2025-09-30 · Agileotter · Agile Otter Blog_ Recommended bash scripts for every project clean\_start ensures you are ready to start new work. It does: 'pull -r' (which fails if you have uncommitted work) a refresh of the local environment 'git clean -i' in case you have untracked files you've forgotten about a full test run. onboard is the script to run if you are a brand-new developer and you need to set up your development environment. It… ## [Why is working faster not working?](https://agileotter.blogspot.com/2025/09/why-is-working-faster-not-working.html) _2025-09-12 · Agileotter · Agile Otter Blog_ Working faster isn't working? Do you want to understand why that is? Warning If you are working with development teams (and aren't a developer or ex-developer) then this might be jarring , but it's intended for good and not for offense. The reason it takes so long for work to be done? I know from a distance it seems like it's "they're not working hard enough," but it's very possible (better than… ## [Tradition Meets Innovation: Mocha Java Coffee Blends](https://www.coffeereview.com/mocha-java-blends-2/) _2025-08-13 · Kenneth Davids · Coffee Review_ The backstory of the Mocha-Java blend is so memorable that it’s easy to become distracted by the story and overlook one of the main reasons roasters still produce Mocha-Java blends (and Coffee Review still writes about them): because the Mocha-Java concept seems to inspire original and exceptional coffees. The quality and distinction of this month’s \[…\] The post Tradition Meets Innovation: Mocha… ## [Subjectivity: Who is to say what's right?](https://agileotter.blogspot.com/2025/07/who-are-you-to-say-whats-right.html) _2025-07-21 · Agileotter · Agile Otter Blog_ This is probably too snarky, but bear with me: If I fill my fuel tank with non-fuel or the wrong fuel, it will damage my car and fail to perform. Is that because fueling the car is a bad idea? If fueling a car is a good idea, shouldn't there be a million ways to do it so that it's easy for people? This "petrol only" rule = is too restrictive to be useful in the real world. Every time I put diesel… ## [A quick note on "At Scale"](https://agileotter.blogspot.com/2025/07/a-quick-note-on-at-scale.html) _2025-07-09 · Agileotter · Agile Otter Blog_ i will submit that the problem of scale is mostly that you Have to deal with divergent, incompatible SW development paths Might not be able to handle losing fine-grained control of every element of the business. Are likely to accumulate heavy processes with a lot of inherent delay and unpredictability in them. Have to deal with "the law of the 2nd floor" (LO2F) The Law of Two Floors The first few… ## [Who (the heck) Am I?](https://agileotter.blogspot.com/2025/07/who-heck-am-i.html) _2025-07-09 · Agileotter · Agile Otter Blog_ I'm Tim Ottinger. You may already know me. I'm a long-time developer, agilist, XPer, CI/CD, teaming/ensemble, TDD, and general software delivery specialist. I wrote the second chapter of Clean Code . I am the originator and co-author of Agile in a Flash with Jeff Langr, and I wrote Use VIM Like a Pro . I'm mentioned in the "acknowledgements" sections of many other books on Code Craft, Agility,… ## [How much rework do you WANT?](https://agileotter.blogspot.com/2025/07/how-much-rework-do-you-want.html) _2025-07-07 · Agileotter · Agile Otter Blog_ How much failure demand and rework do you feel is appropriate in your system? Rework in software is the correction of unacceptable code. That doesn't include refactoring, which corrects only the design and expression of ideas without changing what the code does. This is limited to "something does not work correctly and we can't let it be released." So, we don't want any of that, right? It delays… ## [Tasting Non-Arabica Coffee Species: Robusta, Liberica, Excelsa](https://www.coffeereview.com/robusta-liberica-excelsa-coffee-reviews/) _2025-06-11 · Kenneth Davids · Coffee Review_ Coffee Review readers are doubtless aware of one of American specialty coffee’s most persistent taboos: Thou shalt not roast or sell coffee from trees of the Robusta species. For decades, the North American specialty coffee world has avoided having anything to do with the Robusta (Coffea canephora) species, the hardier, cheaper alternative to Coffea \[…\] The post Tasting Non-Arabica Coffee Species:…