José SAYAGO

Giving Toptal a Try

Mon, 04 May 2015 01:11:00 +0000

Almost a month ago a message from a Toptal software engineer and recruiter landed in one of my public email inboxes. After some research and reading several reviews, almost all of them good, I must say I was still not convinced.

I have been on the Internet for more than 15 years, as a “mainly” Front-end developer I have been contacted by lots of people looking for someone (to exploit), they want the best professionals for the least of money.

However, after some digging I decided to give it a try. As someone who likes to give prompt answers to customers’ requests and get the work done in record time, I must say I am impressed with people working at Toptal, they seem open enough to get contacted and willing to give you all the information you need before deciding.

I have read their filtering process is difficult enough, only 3% of candidates make it through the whole process. I am already on queue for a spot in the Front-end ranks, it seems there are more than 2700 candidates already being interviewed which makes it quite a challenge.

Why would I like to join Toptal? Well it seems they are working with some serious companies looking for the best professionals out there, these companies are not making you waste your time trying to lower your rates, they just want things done the best way possible and that is what I am after.

Getting Facebook Username using Graph API 2.0

Mon, 04 May 2015 01:11:00 +0000

Facebook started upgrading all apps to Graph API v2.0 on April 30, 2015. As with every change, this may bring some headaches to those of us using Graph API v1.0, for instance one important endpoint was removed in v2.0 > username Facebook Platform Changelog.

This change broke the authentication process for one of my customers’ web applications, whenever someone tried to log in they were redirected to the login form without error or warning notices. Besides that, they were being registered with a fallback username I put in place when none was specified.

After some testing I succeeded in adapting my application (using CodeIgniter) to work with Graph API v2.0. Here it is how I get the Facebook username which is needed for new users to get registered the first time they log in using their Facebook account:

Watching Star Wars from Prequels to Sequels

Fri, 26 Dec 2014 01:22:00 +0000

Star Wars is one of those movies that makes you feel happy, excited, disappointed, angry and confused at the same time. If you were born in mid 70’s - 80’s you then maybe watched the sequels first. At the time everything seemed right and after some thinking it actually made kind of sense.

However, if like me you waited until the last one came out and started watching it from Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, then you start seeing wholes in the plot that makes you laugh and wonder how hard is to keep track of things that were said and done 20+ years ago.

It is easy to sit down and criticize the plot holes and even stupid things, moverover when you start watching it from prequels, however we cannot deny, master Lucas created a wonderful universe that still today entertain us, makes us laugh and push our imaginations to its limits.

Experiencias Educativas en Redes Sociales

Mon, 24 Nov 2014 18:51:00 +0000

Me gustaría conocer tu opinión, por favor utiliza el siguiente formulario para entender tus experiencias educativas usando Internet. ¡Gracias por tu aporte y no olvides compartir!

Zone of Comfort

Tue, 04 Nov 2014 21:45:00 +0000

We are creatures of habits, it is easy for us to get accustomed to a life routine; go to work, come back home, eat, watch some T.V, browse on the Internet, go to sleep.

Repeating the same routine every single day becomes a natural behavior, therefore, we slowly begin losing our ability to quickly react to unexpected situations.

This affects our lives in different ways, we turn into boring beings, lose professional opportunities and living with others becomes a difficult experience.

There are things we can do to fight this state of inertia though, for instance, going out of our zone of comfort is the first step. I have experienced first hand, the benefits of opening to new and sometimes unknown professional experiences.

Meeting new people, other places, getting into new educational experiences, it can prove rewarding and beneficial for both your health and your life overall.

Next time you are faced with difficult choices, pick the ones you are not completely comfortable with. Every time we are faced with new and unknown situations, we tend to hide behind our previous experiences and things we already know our zone of comfort.

Expanding your Mind by Reading

Mon, 03 Nov 2014 22:48:00 +0000

Reading is one of my favorite hobbies. I read news, guides, tutorials, documentation, books, etc. Reading has positive effects on your brain. It is also a great way to improve your vocabulary.

Nowadays we find ourselves so immersed in busy schedules, we hardly find time to invest in reading. It has been demonstrated only a few minutes of reading have great positive impact.

I usually read before going to bed, this helps me reduce stress, feel more creative and have nice dreams. I have also noticed I am able to solve issues during my sleep time.

Let me give you some advice, if you want to expand your mind, become smarter and find solutions to your problems while sleeping; read a book for at least 6 minutes before going to bed. You will not regret it.

Looking for a good read, I recommend you this book: Words Can Change Your Brain: 12 Conversation Strategies to Build Trust, Resolve Conflict, and Increase Intimacy

Learning: Do you have what it takes?

Sun, 02 Nov 2014 04:47:00 +0000

Learning is not an easy endeavor, in order for one to succeed it is necessary to sacrifice something. Time and energy are limited and scarce resources, success cannot be achieved if they are not properly invested to reach one goals.

We live in a digital world, opportunities to procrastinate lurk around every corner. It is certainly difficult to find time to focusing on one task at a time.

You must find passion in learning, otherwise you will not succeed. Intellectual activities are time consuming and demand high doses of concentration.

It is certainly possible, but you must put all of your effort, do you have what it takes?

I recommend you to read “The Art of Explanation“ which contains great insight into the process of teaching and learning:

Why am I Using Github and Jekyll

Sun, 02 Nov 2014 04:15:00 +0000

I am passionate about WordPress, actually my blogs are running on it without any issues. However, yesterday I started thinking “what would happen if…“. Then I realized I needed a place to save my writings without risking of losing them in case I can no longer pay for my web server, my data gets corrupted or I die.

I have been using Github for a couple of years now, just love it. They use Jekyll for generating static pages, no database required and a nice uptime history. So I thought, if I like to share, why not just keep my writings on Github and use Jekyll to display them all?

That way I save server resources, if for some reason I die, everything will be here for a while. Github forks are a nice way to keep code/content alive, even after their creators are gone, or abandon their projects.

And finally, I just wanted to learn Jekyll/Markdown/Textile/Liquid and my personal blog was the best excuse I could find to do so.