- Parenting doesn't get easier 2021-07-15
At 3 years old, I had always thought each major milestone would be a clear step function in ease of life and stress level; but that really hasn't been the case. Things don't get easier, and if they do, they are replaced by something else that is also hard.
- My thoughts on bitcoins 2021-04-25
I recently tried to think about bitcoins a little more, a little deeper than the surface level. On any day there is typically a wide range of opinions about bitcoins. Because I'm trying to invest in bitcoins a little more seriously now, I want to think about it deeper.
- Clean monolith code repo structure for a small JAM web app 2021-01-24
One of my main beefs with existing standards for modern web apps (typically in a server-side-rendered React stack) is how difficult the code repo's structure is to work with everyday. One of my specific goals in this project is to figure out a way to structure a web app, with both its backend and frontend, in a mono-repo (monolithic code repository), in a way that is easily understood and navigated.
- Money doesn't always help you stop doing things you don't want to do; some things you don't want to do are still worth doing 2021-01-16
It was a perspective changer for me. To a toddler, play time might be fun, but it's not where the most important bonding happens. What gives them the true, deep bonding is the everyday routines you're doing with them.
- How much you like something vs how much you can tolerate the cost for it 2020-12-10
I was watching The Martian (yes, 5 years late) and thinking about what being an astronaut is like. Sure, I'm not talking about the whole Matt Damon experience of being stuck on Mars alone for 2 years. I'm just talking about generally being an astronaut.
- My current new Windows PC setup essentials in 2020 2020-11-15
I've bought and set up a lot of new desktop/laptop PCs (usually Windows, in some cases Mac or Linux) over the past two decades; and the set of essential software I installed on a new computer has also evolved over the years.
- Fav HN Comment - "Less Code Fallacy" 2020-10-13
"Software has really interesting economics where as the cost/feature decreases by a factor, say 1x, then the set of features that can be profitably worked on expands by like 10x." This is such counterintuitive insight that I admit I had not thought of until I read the comment, yet it's so true.
- Big2 - Breaking Down a Project Into Phases 2020-09-26
Finding time to work on a hobby project is among one of the hard things about doing one. What makes it harder is the context you lose between the time you work on it. And when it comes to a reasonably sized project -- anything bigger than something you could complete over a weekend, with some degree of complexity that requires some planning and system design -- losing the context that was once fresh in your head could also mean losing interests/passion and abandoning ship.
- Svelte Reactivity and Stores 2020-08-26
Since I only code in Svelte occasionally, one of the things that always gets me is how Svelte handles reactivity with stores.
- Svelte/Sapper Issue with Switching Components 2020-08-23
I ran into what might be my first Svelte bug when working on the Big2 card game project. I remain a fan of Svelte, but nevertheless it's good to keep in mind that when you use a small framework, you're bound to run into actual bugs in the framework.
- Miner - Blog Framework based on Sapper/Svelte 2020-08-01
I open sourced the framework that powers this blog, and called it Miner. It's based on Sapper, the web app framework based on the Svelte UI framework.
- Joining a company as a CTO 2020-07-22
One of the things I've thought about briefly over the past few years is what joining a company as a CTO (or a VPE) is like. My experience in tech has mostly been either working my way up within a company, or founding a startup as a technical cofounder and being a CTO that way.
- On being a tech lead 2020-07-10
Recently, Ellen shared the following article on engineering leadership with the group: The Engineer/Manager Pendulum. I found it really insightful and echoing a lot of thoughts I've had, but hadn't been able to articulate.
- Did tech employees really want to live in San Francisco after all? 2020-05-24
For many years I’ve held the opinion that San Francisco was too expensive for startups to run (even back in 2015 or so when I first…
- Microservices and Monorepo, React and jQuery/no frameworks 2020-05-24
The debates of microservices vs monorepo never really end, with articles arguing over one side or another.
- MS Edge's Maps behavior with scroll 2020-05-14
It catches me off-guard every time I do this that when I scroll (mouse scroll, or trackpad scroll with two fingers), it scrolls the map instead of zooming in and out.
- Bootstrapping a Svelte project 2020-04-27
As I learn more about Svelte, I want to write some articles on some key learnings I have along the way.
- Big 2 Card Game, Svelte, JAM Stack 2020-04-22
I've been working on a web-based multiplayer card game. Developing this project has really been a proof-of-concept for myself on a few things.
- Dev.to is the perfect demonstration of how content-based web apps should be developed 2020-04-07
It is insane. Dev.to is capital-F Fast. It's so fast that it feels like a local web app, not one on the internet…
- Moving from the Bay Area to the Greater Sacramento Area 2020-02-07
Zuckerberg is only the latest, but certainly the most high-profile, tech exec to cast doubt on the future of Silicon Valley as the tech…
- A Guide for Picking Up Node.js Development for PHP developers 2019-06-13
Coming from a world of PHP and vanilla client JS? Here are 8 things to pick up to learn node.js development.
- Installing Elixir and Phoenix 2019-02-01
Having a little bit of free time tonight, I thought I’d look into Elixir and Phoenix. Elixir is a relatively new language that runs on the…
- Keyboards for Developers, Part 2 — Mechanical Keyboards 2019-01-20
In Part 1 of this post I talked about laptop keyboards. It was something I just really needed to get off my chest. I was annoyed by the…
- Keyboards for Developers, Part 1 — Let’s Talk About Laptop Keyboards 2019-01-17
I like obsessing over keyboards — I’ve owned many mechanical keyboards (which I’ll talk about in part 2 of this post), and I also like to…
- Installing Antergos Linux on a Lenovo Ideapad 720s (AMD Ryzen) dual booting with Windows 10 2018-06-12
A little while ago, I was on the market for a lightweight ultrabook and bought a Lenovo Ideapad 720s (AMD Ryzen edition) on a good deal.
- The Gotchas on the Path of Learning Ethereum Smart Contracts and Solidity 2018-04-14
There’s a lot of background and story in these first sections. If you’re a developer picking up Solidity and just skimming, you can get the…
- A Modern Home Karaoke System built with YouTube API, WebSocket, Redis, QR codes, and a Chrome… 2017-12-26
I’m as much of a singer as I am a software engineer. Like most singers, I engage in singing in a variety of ways, like playing in a band…
- Setting up your first Node.js environment 2017-09-16
Setting up a dev environment is almost always the hardest part of development; and this is especially true if you’re picking up a new tech…
- Installing Linux (CentOS 7) on an older Windows laptop 2017-08-14
Even being a developer, installing Linux has never been a simple and straightforward process to me. Things are a lot easier now in 2017…
- Easily getting a user’s country, currency, timezone or language from their IP address 2017-08-03
How to easily get user country, currency, timezone or language from IP address in different programming languages using User Country API.In past projects, when I had to look up a user’s country, currency or timezone, I’ve had to do a Geo IP lookup with a service and then look up more country info. Here is how to do all of that in one..
- Developing your Facebook Messenger chatbot in PHP 2017-03-21
PHP is in an interesting place. PHP is a dying trend in Silicon Valley, giving way to technologies like node.js or even newer languages…
- Why it’s difficult to draw the parallel between Facebook Messenger in America and WeChat in China 2017-01-08
Over the past few months, I’ve spent quite a bit of time and effort exploring and experimenting on the Facebook Messenger platform…
- The Human Touch at Airbnbs 2016-12-30
(This was originally a post I had written on Facebook back in April 2016, as a response to the following Medium article. It was written…
- Content Bots, E-Commerce bots, Application Bots 2016-11-25
In my last post I made the comparison between the Facebook Messenger Bot platform and the Facebook Apps platform. In this post, I’m making…
- Facebook Messenger Bot platform growth and trend observations 2016-11-15
It has been just a little over 6 months since the launch of the Facebook Messenger Bot platform in April 2016. The platform has seen some…
- Switching from AT&T Wireless to H2O Wireless 2015-08-11
Mar 2018 update: I ported from Cricket Wireless to H2O Wireless on another line today, and had new gotchas about SMS and data, which I am…
- San Francisco and My Commute 2015-02-24
In most metropolitan cities, people live far away from work and take public transportation into office. What’s wrong with doing that in…
