Paragon vs Renegade

Paragon Vs. Renegade Featured Image

Welcome to the end of week two for The Renegade Coder. Don’t let the title and keywords fool you. This is not a nostalgia article for Mass Effect. It’s actually just pure coincidence that I’m talking about the website and Epic’s latest game, Paragon, in the same article. At any rate, here’s the latest:

Table of Contents

Continuous Integration

One of the biggest updates of the past week has been the choice to upgrade the JavaTutorials GitHub repository to use Maven with Travis-CI. Maven is basically just a automated build tool for Java which is fully configurable to handle the software development life cycle. On the other hand, Travis-CI is a continuous integration tool that remotely launches a Maven build every time code is pushed to the repository. Together, they provide peace of mind for me and the users of the material. You can check out the latest buildOpens in a new tab. by clicking on the build badge in the JavaTutorials README.

Site Icon

Check it out! I changed my site icon to something a bit more clean and simple. Now it just includes a pair of angle brackets sitting in the base site color. It kind of gives off this yin-yang vibe. I’m much happier with this icon even though it is so simple. You should be seeing the icon around on social media and other places. Maybe one day I’ll have an app, and it will serve as the app icon.

Life

Forgive me for sounding bitter, but I haven’t even covered the best news! The Renegade Coder has been live for only two weeks, and my old site has already shut down. It sounds insane, but it’s true. Fourteen days in, and I’m already the only kid on the block. Talk about renegade.

If you haven’t figured out yet, the driving force for the term renegade actually comes from the fact that I decided to go my own way. Now I’m really starting to think that was the right decision as I can see the rest of the group doesn’t even have enough drive to keep the old site going.

On a more positive note, one of my best friends got me into Epic’s new game, Paragon. I’m still a little burnt out of MOBAs thanks to Heroes of the Storm, but I figured I’d try it out. Paragon is actually pretty cool. I’m enjoying this FPS-style MOBA (it’s third person, but you get the idea), and it looks great on my build.

Site Updates

As usual, here’s a list of the latest updates to the site:

Latest Posts

Latest Plugin Changes

  • Updated Media File Renamer to version 3.4.6
  • Updated WooCommerce PayPal Powered by Braintree Gateway to version 2.0.0
  • Updated Media File Renamer to version 3.5.0
  • Updated Quiz and Survey Master to version 5.0.2
  • Updated MailChimp for WordPress to version 4.1.2
  • Updated Media File Renamer to version 3.5.2

Coming Soon!

It’s been a bit of a slow week as I’ve been busy trying to get ready for my big move in July. I’m looking to minimize a lot of the junk I’ve been carrying around so moving is a bit easier. I’ve already given up a lot of fun stuff like an old PS3 and a good portion of my record collection, but I’m still looking to downsize.

Also, I’m probably going to be pretty slow this coming week as well. I have my last A-Course class (Software Architecture), and I’m looking to catch up a bit on my own mental health. Work is getting pretty tough right now, and I need some time to relax. Also, this coming weekend is Morgan’s graduation and graduation party, so posting this weekend is pretty much out of the question.

That said, I do have my last Java Basics lesson in the pipeline. It’s mostly written. I just need to polish it up, so that will likely come out later this week. I am a little frustrated with how little engagement I’ve gotten with the Peer Review post, so I went ahead and wrote the last tutorial myself. Once that’s launched, I’m going to start working on some products. The next tier of Java tutorials will not likely launch until June or later which means the site might be starved for content for a little while. That said, I think it will be worth it. I’ll probably also be working on a side project in parallel for awhile, so look out for that (dubbed powlib for now).

I hope everyone in the northern hemisphere is enjoying this transition to summer! I know I am, but it’s been near the freezing point all week. Hopefully soon we’ll have some nicer weather. Maybe this week will be my last time dealing with the cold. One can dream 😉

The Legacy Newsletter (56 Articles)—Series Navigation

For a long time, I used to try to write a custom newsletter every week which eventually became every month. If you’re interested in browsing those old posts just to see how this site came to be, I’ve created a small series for you. Check it out!

Today, the regular newsletter is issued via email which you can access by becoming a member of The Renegade Coder. Alternatively, you can subscribe to the newsletterOpens in a new tab. directly through MailChimp.

Jeremy Grifski

Jeremy grew up in a small town where he enjoyed playing soccer and video games, practicing taekwondo, and trading Pokémon cards. Once out of the nest, he pursued a Bachelors in Computer Engineering with a minor in Game Design. After college, he spent about two years writing software for a major engineering company. Then, he earned a master's in Computer Science and Engineering. Today, he pursues a PhD in Engineering Education in order to ultimately land a teaching gig. In his spare time, Jeremy enjoys spending time with his wife and kid, playing Overwatch 2, Lethal Company, and Baldur's Gate 3, reading manga, watching Penguins hockey, and traveling the world.

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