In this post I’ve listed a few picks from various categories I believe made the most impact on me throughout 2017. These titles were not necessarily released in 2017, but that’s when they made an impact on me. I know the categories are a bit strange, but that’s all right. I’m the boss here.
Software
Jekyll has been around since 2008 and is described as a simple, blog-aware, static site generator for personal, project, or organization sites. Jekyll is written in Ruby by Tom Preston-Werner, GitHub’s co-founder. As you might have guessed, I am using it to host this page. It’s definitely made my content creation easier, more robust and faster. I believe it will stick with me for many years to come.
Github Pages is the simplest way ever to host a static site. It also supports Jekyll. It also supports https with your own custom domain if you do a bit of googling. Maybe I’ll write a tutorial on how to do this later.
AdEspresso is the best Facebook advertising tool I’ve seen so far. This italian made product is so well done, and it comes with loads of documentation, videos, and a great community if you need support. Even though the tool is great, I’m not satisfied with my Facebook campaign results yet. It’s an ongoing process that I will pay more attention to in 2018.
Capistrano - A type of Italian sausage? No, not really. Capistrano is a remote server automation tool for deploying Ruby apps. I’m quite late to the party here, because Capistrano has been around since 2006. However, 11 years later it still feels like magic when it’s working for you and your apps.
Games
DOTA 2 stands for “Defence of the ancients” and is a massive online multiplayer game by Valve. The game has been tuned to perfection through hundreds of patches. It takes time to learn it, but once you see how it works you’ll be stuck for hours. This game is all about teamwork and strategy. Get started today. It’s free to download and play.
Hearthstone Hearthstone is turn-based strategy card game by Blizzard. It features characters mainly from the World of Warcraft series. It feels like perfection this game, the illustrations, music, and responsiveness is the best.
Books
- Darth Bane – Path of Destruction, by Drew Karpyshyn
- Cathedral of the Sea, by Ildefonso Falcones