All things related to Jason Ong

Hi there,

I'm a software engineer from Singapore. A self taught programmer upon graduating with a Bachelors in Civil Engineering in 2005. Have been using Ruby on Rails since 2006. Music is a big part of my life and have been playing the guitar since 1992. Besides God, my wife and my family are my biggest inspiration.

Most programmers are either a hacker, engineer or a scientist.

I'm an engineer.

Peter Bohm drilled in me Test Driven Development in 2007 and has changed my life as an engineer. These days I test in Rspec. I'm strict on covering methods in models and modules and lesser on controllers and views which in my opinion might be better dealt with later with integration tests.

I try to write good code by:

• google up an existing solution as there's no need to reinvent the wheel
• write tests first which helps me think through its design
• writing succinct code that are self explanatory. [Here's an example] (https://github.com/jasonong/jasonong/tree/master/style)

I enjoy building apps and have done quite a fair bit. You can see [all my latest works here] (http://velvetpd.info).

I subscribed to thoughtful conventions and enjoy using opionated frameworks that has solved the hard problems. In the course of my work, I'm trying to [log down patterns that I've discovered] (https://github.com/jasonong/Rails-Patterns). It is still a work in progress. I keep [an engineering log] (http://objectliteral.blogspot.com) too for the purpose of fast brain offloads. CHANGELOG serves as an Anti-Todo-List to remind myself of my daily personal progress.

Having done project management before, my motto for dev team code contributions are,

• To understand - write code that's easy to read and understand
• To instruct - provide good documentation
• To scale - good tests coverage and architectural decisions

I was an avid Ubuntu + netbook user till I switched to the Macbook Air. These days I code only on OSX with screen sessions. For text editing I toggle between Vim and Sublime Text 2.

My design skills suck, thankfully Twitter bootstrap made front end look decent. I wouldn't profess to be a Javascript expert and have decent knowledge and experience using it. Most recently, I've been trying out Ember.js for a project that I'm working on. I believe the future of mobile/web will be responsive interactions powered by heavy client-side frameworks and a solid api backend for data crunching.

I'm currently working as a lead developer in Tailored Inc and am based in Palo Alto, California. Feel free to get in touch with me at [email protected] for anything pertaining rails.

I've got a long history with music. Played in many bands and outfits and joined one too many band competitions. Have done studio work and am familiar with audio production tools. My current tool of choice is a Presonus Studio One with Audiobox, a Fender Telecaster and a Fender G-DEC amp. I'm most comfortable when I'm on stage with a bunch of good musicians. Sometimes I post stuff on [Soundcloud] (http://soundcloud.com/jasonong). These days you're better off watching me play in [church] (http://c3sv.com).

I'm purposed driven and work hard towards my goal. I enjoy helping people reach their dreams. I don't work for money but see it as a necessary tool to get things done. I believe one doesn't need a lot of money to be happy and free but rather having a debt free lifestyle. I make decisions based on people and not over products/objects/events. I believe in God and am counting on Him to lead the way.

If you're gotten this far, thanks for reading. Would love to know you better. Feel free to contact me at [email protected] or at [my twitter handle] (http://twitter.com/jasonong). I'm pretty responsive by email. If I don't please understand that I might be busy and will take a while.