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Polyptych — turning one essay into many kinds of visuals
Jun 14, 2026 ai

Polyptych: One Essay, Many Pictures

I built my own slide and infographic generator because I couldn’t stop poking at Google’s NotebookLM. The toy has since grown into something I rely on. It’s called Polyptych, and...

#gen-ai #ai #infographics #image-gen #software-engineering
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The seven wastes of software development
Jan 13, 2026 software-engineering

The seven wastes of software development

Lean Thinking is more than just a set of management tools; it is a philosophy centered on maximizing customer value while relentlessly eliminating waste. At its core, it challenges us...

#agile #project-management #quality-assurance
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Java in the Technology Radar
Sep 03, 2025 software-engineering

Java in the Technology Radar (JavaSpektrum)

I’ve written a new article for JavaSpektrum: “Java im Technology Radar – Totgesagte leben länger”. The piece looks back at Java’s journey through the eyes of the Thoughtworks Technology Radar...

#java #article #jvm #thoughtworks
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Structured Concurrency in Java 24
Mar 31, 2025 software-engineering

Structured Concurrency in Java 24 (JavaSpektrum)

I’ve written an article for JavaSpektrum 2/2025 about Structured Concurrency in Java 24. The article covers JEP 499, Java’s fourth preview of Structured Concurrency, which aims to make concurrent programming...

#java #concurrency #article #jvm #parallelism
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Coroutines in Kotlin at KKon 2021 Warmup
Apr 23, 2021 software-engineering

Coroutines in Kotlin at KKon 2021 Warmup

In my talk “Nebenläufigkeit mit Koroutinen strukturieren” at the KKon 2021 Warmup I explained how to structure and organize concurrent programs with coroutines in Kotlin.

#kotlin #parallelism #concurrency #talk #slides
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Refactoring with the Mikado Method
Apr 02, 2020 software-engineering

Refactoring with the Mikado Method

At a client of ThoughtWorks I gave a talk about refactoring in line with the book “Mikado Method”. The book describes a method to plan and perform non-trivial refactorings of...

#tdd #talk #slides #clean-code
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Weniger warten, asynchron arbeiten
May 06, 2019 software-engineering

Coroutines in Kotlin and Go on heise Developer

In the article “Weniger warten, asynchron arbeiten” (less waiting, asychronous working) published by heise Developer I explain the theoretical background of coroutines and how to use them in Kotlin and...

#article #kotlin #concurrency #parallelism #golang
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Concurrency in Kotlin with coroutines
Apr 23, 2019 software-engineering

Concurrency in Kotlin with coroutines

Coroutines are a “new” way to handle concurrency on the JVM. I gave an introduction to coroutines in Kotlin at Thoughtworks. This is basically the translation of the german slides....

#slides #talk #kotlin #concurrency #parallelism #jvm
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Jan 02, 2019 software-engineering

Fusion of object oriented and functional programming

The fusion of Object Oriented Programming (OOP) and Functional Programming (FP) languages has become increasingly popular in recent years, with many programming languages now offering features and constructs from both...

#kotlin #object-functional #scala #functional-programming
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Unter der Haube - cuDNN schafft die Grundlage für Deep Learning mit GPUs
Dec 01, 2018 gpu-computing

Machine learning library 'cuDNN' explained in iX Developer

It’s very difficult to implement algorithms optimally for GPUs. Therefore NVIDIA provides the library cuDNN for deep learning with neural networks. This article published in the german magazine iX Developer...

#article #ai #parallelism #concurrency #machine-learning #data #nvidia-cuda #gpu-computing
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Jul 22, 2017 software-engineering

EuroClojure 2017 in Berlin

In my first project for ThoughtWorks the backend is written in Clojure. Since the project was in Berlin, I visited the EuroClojure 2017 which takes place in Berlin this year,...

#jvm #functional-programming
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Sep 07, 2016 work-related

A Good Novel About IT and DevOps

In the novel “The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win”, the protagonist Bill is promoted against his will and must immediately take over, be...

#agile #project-management #devops #review
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Jul 28, 2016 work-related

Planning is an Agile Process

In “Agile Estimating and Planning”, Mike Cohn excellently explains the problems associated with project planning and effort estimation and presents “agile estimating and planning” as a solution.

#agile #project-management #review
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Ambient Occlusion example
Jul 08, 2015 software-engineering

Ray tracing with Groovy and Java

While I was reading the excellent book by Kevin Suffern "Ray tracing from the ground up", I implemented a ray tracer in Java and wrote a DSL in Groovy, to...

#groovy #java #model-driven #jvm #graphics
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Jun 17, 2015 software-engineering

A very good introduction to Scala

Scala is an important milestone in the fusion of functional and object-oriented programming. This fusion is not yet complete, but rather a “discovery process” that will continue for a few...

#scala #review #jvm #object-functional
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Mar 27, 2015 big-data

Java MapReduce with Hadoop

MapReduce is a “corset” and forces the developer into narrow boundaries. Therefore, it makes sense to read “MapReduce Design Patterns” to quickly learn the common tricks and techniques. It is...

#review #data #distributed
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Mar 16, 2015 gpu-computing

A Good Introduction to C++ AMP

“C++ AMP: Accelerated Massive Parallelism with Microsoft Visual C++” is a good introduction to programming with C++ AMP. Unfortunately, at the time of this review, it is the only book...

#review #c++ #parallelism #concurrency #gpu-computing
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Feb 23, 2015 gpu-computing

The Best Book on OpenCL 1.x

What makes “OpenCL in Action: How to Accelerate Graphics and Computation” special is that the author, Matthew Scarpino, truly tries to explain the programs. You learn the reasons behind his...

#review #c++ #parallelism #concurrency #gpu-computing #opencl
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Jan 29, 2015 software-engineering

Advanced 'git'

I have been using git for a few years now, but I wanted to gain more background knowledge and learn about more complex workflows. The book “Git in Practice” succeeded...

Jan 26, 2015 gpu-computing

Solid Optimization Tips for CUDA

While browsing through “CUDA Fortran for Scientists and Engineers”, I noticed that the authors provide valuable optimization tips. That piqued my curiosity.

#review #c++ #parallelism #concurrency #nvidia-cuda #gpu-computing
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Jan 12, 2015 science

Only partially elegant

In the first part of “The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory”, the foundations of relativity and quantum mechanics are explained vividly and with...

Jan 12, 2015 science

My Favorite History Book

James Gleick is an incredibly well-read person who, in this extensive and worthwhile book “The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood”, presents the history of information and information processing....

Dec 17, 2014 software-engineering

“Sophisticated” JavaScript

If there is such a thing as “sophisticated” literature, then there is now also “sophisticated” code. “If Hemingway Wrote JavaScript” contains many funny and educational examples.

#javascript #review
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Apr 19, 2014 gpu-computing

Only recommended for die-hard CUDA fans

I had already read many articles from the series “CUDA, Supercomputing for the Masses” by Rob Farber on the Dr. Dobb’s website and was quite impressed. Back then in 2009,...

#review #c++ #parallelism #concurrency #nvidia-cuda #gpu-computing
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Apr 16, 2014 gpu-computing

Best CUDA Book for Advanced Users

With CUDA, it’s easy to speed up a calculation by a factor of 2-5. How to achieve higher speedups is explained in “CUDA Programming” by Shane Cook.

#review #c++ #parallelism #concurrency #nvidia-cuda #gpu-computing
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Apr 01, 2014 gpu-computing

Good Tips for Performance Optimization

In “The CUDA Handbook”, Nicholas Wilt proves himself to be very competent and keen to experiment with kernel optimization. Advanced readers will find this book very beneficial.

#review #c++ #parallelism #concurrency #gpu-computing #nvidia-cuda
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Dec 01, 2011 software-engineering

Very good in places, unpolished and too brief in others

Programming parallel and concurrent programs with shared memory and threads is complicated and very error-prone. Approaches such as Software Transactional Memory (STM), message-passing architectures, and actor models have been developed...

#parallelism #concurrency #jvm #review #object-functional
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Nov 15, 2011 software-engineering

Only for 'Thread Monkeys'

With the title “The Art of Concurrency”, high expectations are set that are not met. The subtitle “A Thread Monkey’s Guide to Writing Parallel Applications” is more fitting for the...

#review #parallelism #concurrency #c++
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Aug 08, 2011 science

Review of 'Complexity - A Guided Tour'

“Complexity - A Guided Tour” is a worthwhile and interesting introduction. “Complexity” is a cross-disciplinary topic that permeates many fields, such as biology (immune system, brain, evolution), economics, computer science,...

#review #complex-systems
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Mar 13, 2011 gpu-computing

The best introduction to CUDA

“Cuda by Example” is the perfect start to CUDA for beginners. However, even some advanced users and professionals might enjoy the clear explanations and examples.

#parallelism #review #gpu-computing
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Training: Ant in Depth
Oct 09, 2009 software-engineering

Training: Ant in Depth

Apache Ant offers a lot of capabilities that many teams never end up using. This training dives into Ant’s more advanced features (as of 2009).

Aug 01, 2009 software-engineering

Groovy, EMF and UML2

I wrote the Groovy EMF builder and the Groovy UML2 builder. These tools use the builder concept of the programming language Groovy to ease the processing of Eclipse Modelling Framework...

#groovy #eclipse #model-driven #jvm #java
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Feb 27, 2008 software-engineering

Memoization in Groovy with a Decorator

Memoization is a well known optimization technique to avoid repeated calculations. With dynamic programming languages like Groovy it is possible to extend the behaviour of an already exisiting class at...

Feb 01, 2008 games

Dynamic Languages Shootout / OOP 2008

The german magazine JavaSpektrum organized the "Dynamic Languages Shootout" contest for the OOP 2008 conference. The challenge was to create a computer game similiar to Scrabble in a dynamically typed...

#groovy #jvm #parallelism #concurrency
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Dec 01, 2007 software-engineering

Eclipse BugDays 2007

I participated at Eclipse BugDays in July, August, September, October, and November 2007 and helped debugging the Eclipse projects JDT, PDE/UI, and ECF.

#eclipse #jvm #java
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Nov 29, 2007 software-engineering

Using UML2 with Groovy

The UML2 project provides an EMF based implementation of the UML 2.x metamodel in Java. With the EMFBuilder it is possible to create and process UML2 models.

#groovy #eclipse #model-driven #jvm
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Editor for the Common Warehouse Metamodel (CWM)
Oct 01, 2007 software-engineering

Editor for the Common Warehouse Metamodel (CWM)

The Common Warehouse Metamodel (CWM) is a standard by the Object Management Group (OMG). The intention of CWM is to define a standard for metadata in Data Warehouses and Business Intelligence applications.

#groovy #eclipse #model-driven #jvm #data
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Eclipse SQL Editor Plugin
Mar 07, 2006 software-engineering

Eclipse SQL Editor Plugin

I wanted to find out how hard it is to build a language editor in Eclipse. Back then I didn’t know of any open-source SQL editor (and there wasn’t one...

#eclipse #jvm #java
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