If you haven’t done it already, get yourself a Raspberry Pi and install Linux on it

Everyone in software engineering should go through the process of installing an operating system from scratch I don’t care that…

Good idea fairy strikes when you least expect it

I am the wrong Chief Architect for the Good Idea Fairy to prey upon. You see, I am a very practical and pragmatic Chief Architect. I know what I know, and I know what I don’t know. I solve problems by writing code — I have the background and the training to do that. I can see through the bullshit.

Best practices for building a microservice architecture

I have been building micro-service enterprise applications my entire career – 22 years as of this writing. Over the years, I learned that there is a balance between pure adherence to design patterns and practice.

TypeScript is a productivity problem in and of itself

Anything more extensive or complex than a few thousand lines of code becomes excruciatingly slow to compile by the TypeScript compiler. A large project worked upon by a large development team will soon discover that the TypeScript compiler itself is a massive productivity bottleneck.

In most cases, there is no need for NoSQL

Over the years, I learned the hard way that, with the exception of a few niche use cases, NoSQL databases such as AWS DynamoDB or Apache Cassandra are not always a good idea.

Tools of the craft

Developers should feel empowered to configure their environment and development tools to their liking and contribute to the shared team standard. They should know the libraries they picked and why they picked them. They should be able to articulate why they like one programming language over another. As part of their job, each developer should be able to state clearly and in actionable terms how they’d like to work.

Kitchen table conversations

This election cycle much has been made out of what should be left to families to discuss over “kitchen table” conversations. Should it be racism? Should it be sex education? Should it be New Jersey’s LGBTQ inclusive curriculum? Here are the topics we discuss in my family with our two kids — one in middle school, the other in high school.

Application developers like to think their app is the only one

My pet UX peeves described above all seem to fall under the same category: each app thinks it is the only app running on my phone, and it is the only app I am using. It boils down to the developers’ respect for my time.

Node.js and Lambda deployment size restrictions

AWS Lambda has a 250 Megabyte limit on the size of the deployable asset. It is a generous limit that is easy to exceed with Node-based Lambda functions.

A year of COVID taught us all how to work remotely

Telecommuting in and of itself isn’t the end — it is the means to a more flexible work arrangement. In a sign of changing attitudes in the enterprise world, Gizmodo is reporting that Salesforce would “allow its employees more freedom in choosing how to structure their work lives going forward.”