Whenever I start a new project, I struggle with what to put in the very first commit message. After doing a “git init” there is technically nothing there and no work done yet, so how to describe this initial step?

Initial commit” always seemed a little futile, so I started gathering some better examples on what to put in the message for the glorious start of a new project and I am sharing them here for all of you to marvel at:

This is where it all begins...
Commit committed
Version control is awful
COMMIT ALL THE FILES!
The same thing we do every night, Pinky - try to take over the world!
Lock S-foils in attack position
This commit is a lie
I'll explain when you're older!
Here be Dragons
Reinventing the wheel. Again.
This is not the commit message you are looking for
Batman! (this commit has no parents)

Or, you know, just use whatthecommit.com.

I’m always happy for comments with further ideas and will be adding to this list constantly.

The year 2014 is almost over, but looking around my developer colleagues, I see that there is still a lot of old knowledge and outdated techniques for using your Mac for (web-) development purposes. To counter this lack of information I will outline the steps I took to lift my two primary OS X systems into the new age. Gone are the days where we need to have a webserver, database system and a plethora of different packages installed on our main operating system and deal with breaking changes whenever a new OS update (Hello Yosemite!) comes along.

This post talks about setting up your own private local development server with all the needed software to start developing applications with PHP and MySQL without having to install any server software on your main operating system. The end product will also give you the means to quickly set up an identical virtual machine on any number of additional computers you might want to use for your development.

Disclaimer: As I am a heavy user of Laravel these days, this set-up will mainly center around web development and PHP.

Continue reading