Posts

All the articles I've posted.

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate Notes

  Published:Sep 8, 2018 |  at 09:23 AM

  I recently passed the AWS Solutions Architect - Associate exam and wanted to share my study notes. These cover the key services, concepts, and gotchas you need to know to pass.

• An Intro to AWS Certifications

  Published:Sep 4, 2018 |  at 01:23 PM

  I'm usually skeptical of certification programs, but AWS certifications felt different. They focus on how to build scalable and reliable services. My take on why they're worth it and how to prepare for the exams.

• What is Churning and Why Should I Care?

  Published:Jun 23, 2018 |  at 05:32 AM

  I got into credit card churning a few years ago, and it's become a rewarding hobby. My wife and I went on our honeymoon using rewards points. This introductory guide covers the world of credit card rewards.

• More Code Review Best Practices

  Published:Jun 5, 2018 |  at 03:50 PM

  Three years after my first code review best practices post, I've learned even more about what makes reviews effective. Here are additional strategies for making your code reviews more valuable and less painful.

• Programmer Resources

  Published:May 2, 2018 |  at 03:50 PM

  A friend asked me what I've used to improve as a software engineer. When he asked for a list, I realized I didn't have one yet. Here are the blogs, books, and online courses that have helped me grow as a developer.

• Dangerous Python Functions, Part 3

  Published:Jan 30, 2017 |  at 01:33 PM

  In the final part of my dangerous Python functions series, I cover more security risks including assert statements, XML parsing vulnerabilities, and unsafe input handling. Plus, I've turned the whole series into a deck of cards!

• DevOps from Scratch, Part 2: Amazon & Terraform

  Published:Sep 20, 2016 |  at 12:32 PM

  In part 2 of my DevOps from Scratch series, we'll take our Flask app from local development to production on AWS using Terraform for infrastructure automation and Ansible for deployment.

• DevOps from Scratch, Part 1: Vagrant & Ansible

  Published:Sep 19, 2016 |  at 12:32 PM

  Ever wondered how to build and deploy a web app from scratch? This is the first part of my 'DevOps from Scratch' series, where we'll get hands-on with Vagrant and Ansible to automate our local development setup for a Python web application.

• Refactoring Analogies

  Published:Sep 12, 2016 |  at 06:54 AM

  Refactoring can be hard to explain to stakeholders who don't code. Using analogies from home improvement and organization, I share how I communicate the value of refactoring to non-technical audiences.

• Two Trains Talk

  Published:Aug 29, 2016 |  at 03:50 PM

  I gave a talk using the "two trains" analogy to explain technical debt and refactoring. The response was so positive that I wrote it up as a blog post, complete with slides and speaker notes.