Lead developer / Manager / Python lover / SQL nerd / AI & ML dabbler

Turn your Raspberry Pi into a home media server (without using Plex)

July 2, 2024

Everyone loves Raspberry Pi, they are cheap and flexible mini linux boxes. Here is a how I set one up to serve video files to all of the devices in my house.

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The Linux Mega-hack: what it means for dev teams, and software in general

April 18, 2024

Several Linux distros were recently compromised by a mega-hack that almost became the biggest exploit of all time before it was discovered, but what does this mean for you and your team?

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The Testing Pyramid is Dead, here is something better...

March 19, 2024

For years the concept of the testing pyramid has reigned supreme: the idea that the number of tests should be inversely proportional to the breath of their scope. In short: lots of unit tests, very few end to end tests. This was first proposed by Mike Cohen in “Succeeding with Agile”, but really popularized by software demigod Martin Fowler. In recent times there has been a shift in thinking here, and one that I have adopted for both front and backend development.

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How to fix it when your SSL certificate is not appearing in AWS Cloudfront

February 29, 2024

Cloudfront is an easy to use CDN for basic use cases, with blazing fast performance in most geographical areas, but this gotcha can be very frustrating. HTTPS is an almost essential requirement these days, as your site will have difficulty being listed on google without this, and you will need a SSL cert to configure HTTPS.

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React is king, and here are 5 reasons why

February 23, 2024

This author has long lamented the madness that is the JS ecosystem, with frameworks rising and dying off endlessly. Any dev who invested time in one of the main frameworks over the years has likely seen that knowledge become irrelevant in an alarmingly short space of time. Recent trends indicate that this is settling down, and that React is becoming the new overlord of all browser frameworks (and perhaps server side rendering too). I, for one, weclome our new insect overlords, and here is why:

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