2019 - Technical Recap

My 2019 Technical recap into 2020

About me + History

Skills

Android native Development, iOS native Development, System Administration, Network Administration, Java, C++, Swift.

What I learned

I have learned the most tech wise and skill wise last year than any other year in 2019.

• I learned way more about Android development last year than I can ever ask for. That is all due to Oxygen Updater. The entire team over there has taught me a lot, don’t get me wrong there is a long way to go for me to even get near their levels of expertise. So this year I am planning to continue my learning over there to gain more experience and to help contribute to the project more as I learn.
• For me personally iOS development was not utilized that much. I sort of laid low this year in this category. I didn't have any projects this year compared to other years that needed iOS development. Most projects this year have either been command line, Android Dev, utilities, or not coding at all. This is really sad since me being out for barely over a year I feel extremely left out. I am already realizing that it is going to be hard to get back into iOS dev especially since they are not utilizing SwiftUI and other various technologies that I have never used before. I don't intend on getting back into native iOS dev this year since I don't have any projects lined up that plan to utilize it.
• I did a lot of learning on my System and Network Administration side of things. I dedicated a lot of time diving into cyber security, production deployments, and making on the fly solutions to various problems that popped up. I also spent a lot of time dedicated to maintenance and development of infrastructures. While I do plan to develop these skills this year, this category will not be my primary focus since I have other needs that are more necessary.
• I learned a lot more of Java this year. I'm starting to appreciate it more. I mostly focused on how to write better programs by following a variety of guidelines while also keeping efficiency in mind. I do plan on developing these skills even more. Also while me migrating to Kotlin since that is what we are rewriting the entire Oxygen Updater app in. So Kotlin, from the little I have dabbled in it seems to be a beautiful language however it is just going to take some time.
• Very similar to Java, C++ has really grown on me. After me taking maintenance over NCMPCPP I have dedicated more time than ever to C++. In return for spending some much time on it I am super thankful for that. I have once again learned how to be a better programmer because of that language. I truly believe that C++ allows me to think outside of the box and it make more sense compared to other languages. This year I plan to learn more in C++ while making NCMPCPP even better.

Why I do what I do

Everything that I do has a purpose behind it. Everything that I do must pass my inspection before I proceed with it. For example me becoming a Founder for Operation Jupiter had a purpose behind it. The purpose behind me developing Operation Jupiter was to connect developers from around the world, and also making tools that other developers can use even when they are not involved in the project. I have a passion for giving back to the community and not expecting anything in return. That is why I support all of my open source projects without a guarantee of getting anything back other than knowledge gained.

Future

Interest for future

I have a variety of interests that I hope to pursue in the future. I would really like to dedicate some time to Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Those two subjects have been a few hot topics for the past few years. Up until recently AI and ML have really not interested me enough to spend time researching and developing them. I’m also going to dive into a few more technologies. In the future I do want to investigate into getting a few CompTIA certifications and maybe some Cisco certifications. Also, I’ve been looking into compression lately. One of my interest for the future would be making compression software for Images, Videos, Audio, etc.

Future Development

I have a lot of development stuff that I am dedicated to doing in 2020 compared to some of my interest that I would like to explore but simply don’t have enough time.

• I’ve been working at Apollo TV for the past few months. The app is written in Flutter, which I know very little about. So I am definitely going to explore flutter and dart more this year.
• I’m also going to expand to other technologies on top of Android and iOS development too. I’m starting already exploring ElectronJS for Desktop apps. It seems very promising since I am going to have to use it in a project that I have coming up very soon.
• For OhMyZsh it is going to be another amazing year. Last year we hit 100,000 stars on GitHub which is amazing. We have a lot of improvements coming up over there. We also starting 2020 off we already integrated GitHub actions which allows us maintainers to review Pull Request way faster than ever before.
• Also this year I plan to learn a lot more about Android native development while working at Oxygen Updater. I’ve already learned so much more about Android dev since I started working there back in July of 2019 since coming from iOS native of about 4 years.

Predictions for 2020

I have quite a few Technology predictions for 2020. They range from a variety of places and a variety of ideas.

• Okay, so for starters. 5G is going to progress faster than ever, I’m imagining that we are going to see a lot more cities getting 5G also more 5G compatible devices will support 5G.
• Another prediction, also leading off 5G, I’m betting that the new IPhone in September will have an addon or another model that supports 5G.
• Another technology prediction is for Tesla Motors. I’m going to say that they are really going to push their Autonomous driving. I believe that the technology is here already, however it is going to just take a bit more convincing to let the end users see that.
• Privacy, has been a major talk over the past few years. Such as GDPR coming into effect May 25th of 2018. I wonder if the Government will have any say on what the companies do this year with everyone’s privacy standards. Do I believe that GDPR or something very similar will happen in the U.S.? No, never. I think GDPR is smart however the government is not going to enact something like that.
• However I think that companies will eventually have to listen to the end users, which are becoming more and more demanding as we go along.
• I also think that this is going to be a good year for Intel and AMD to compete, on the areas of speed, cores, threads, and of course price.
• Also I’m very excited for the SpaceX internet. I’m excited to see what all it entails and what Elon Musk has up his sleeve on this one.

Contact Me + My Links

GitHub: https://github.com/larson-carter
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/larson-carter