Recent posts
May 2023
Setting up GitHub Actions to have access to your AWS account
, written on
May 28
in category Blog.
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GitHub Actions is the best CI/CD provider I’ve used so far. It is extremely flexible, and has really quickly caught up in terms of feature…
Speeding up your dev workflow with Alfred
, written on
May 13
in category Blog.
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Alfred is one of my favourite Mac apps. Here’s how to use custom workflows to enhance your dev experience.
Processing incoming email with AWS Simple Email Service
, written on
May 9
in category Blog.
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Add reply-via-email functionality to your app using Amazon SES.
Apr 2023
Building social features using DynamoDB and Lambda
, written on
Apr 8
in category Blog.
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How we built a personalised feeds service and following using serverless on AWS.
Feb 2023
Returning to slower social media
, written on
Feb 6
in category Blog.
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No more algorithmically generated feeds with something new every time you refresh, no companies fighting for your attention.
Jan 2023
Creating a Production-Ready Public API using Serverless
, written on
Jan 1
in category Blog.
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How to build an API using Lambda and API Gateway for use by external developers.
Dec 2022
Memories: The Relative Score
, written on
Dec 28
in category Blog.
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Lessons learned as a 16-year old entrepreneur about how simple product features can have a big impact.
Nov 2022
AWS re:Invent news for serverless developers
, written on
Nov 30
in category Blog.
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AWS re:Invent has brough many new AWS features. Here are the most interesting ones for serverless developers.
Team size matters
, written on
Nov 23
in category Blog.
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How big does your team really need to be to achieve your goals? Probably not as big as you think.
Aug 2022
Battery Powered
, written on
Aug 22
in category Blog.
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It’s easy to forget how far batteries have come over the last years — but the Oura Ring is a great reminder of what’s possible now.
Apr 2022
Using AWS S3 as a simple cache service
, written on
Apr 16
in category Blog.
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Using S3 as a simple caching mechanism for any stateless functions that need to save some ephemeral data to keep state.
Aug 2021
High-rise
, written on
Aug 11
in category Dialogue.
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"I fear the moment I'm truly happy with myself, I won't be myself anymore," he said quietly.
Slackin' Amazing
, written on
Aug 5
in category Productivity.
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Here are some of my favourite hidden features of Slack. From a talk by Elle Tattersall and myself as part of the NearSt "Lunch & Learn"…
Apr 2021
Enginears podcast
, written on
Apr 15
in category Podcasts.
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I got the opportunity to talk with Elliot Kipling about NearSt, the journey from prototype to product market fit, and how we decided to…
Interceptors in Axios
, written on
Apr 5
in category Engineering.
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Interceptors in Axios are a great tool to simplify your management of network requests.
Oct 2020
The Craft
, written on
Oct 3
in category Writing.
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There’s something unique about creating something from scratch, with nothing but your own vision of what it should be like, with no…
Jul 2020
Serverless magic links with AWS Cognito
, written on
Jul 27
in category Serverless.
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I've written before about what I consider to be best practices for magic links from a UX perspective. Recently, I got a chance to apply…
Practical regular expressions
, written on
Jul 26
in category Dev basics.
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Regular expressions (regex) are one of those topics that a lot of developers find difficult to get started with. I think that's not because…
Digital gardens
, written on
Jul 24
in category Writing.
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Something that I recently came across is the concept of a digital garden. It's not a new concept, although this terminology for it seems to…
Undivided attention
, written on
Jul 19
in category Road to me.
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My granddad passed away earlier this week at age 95. It didn’t come as much of a surprise, he had not been anywhere close to well in the…
Jun 2020
Fighting for a cause
, written on
Jun 3
in category Road to me.
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I was thinking the other day about the fact that I haven’t really fought for a cause since I was in primary school.
May 2020
Good software
, written on
May 22
in category User experience.
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A lot has been written on this subject, and if you want the definitive guide on product design and software development (if there is such a…
Go to / on it
, written on
May 21
in category Screenplaying.
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I've been watching some old episodes of NCIS in the background while doing some mundane admin tasks for work (only outside office hours of…
Mar 2020
Transactional emails at scale
, written on
Mar 15
in category Open source.
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At every tech startup I've created, we've had a need for transactional emails. You know, the ones that welcome you after you created your…
Feb 2020
Just done
, written on
Feb 22
in category Screenplaying.
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INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT
Standing strong
, written on
Feb 16
in category Poem.
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Tonight I’m standing strongLike that willow tree across the streetAll alone on my balconyThe wind moving past meGusts of cold air hitting…
The anti-bullying day
, written on
Feb 9
in category Road to me.
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Almost exactly 13 years ago today was my day. A few months earlier, as a 10-year-old, I had started an anti-bullying club. Not because I…
The 'why'
, written on
Feb 7
in category Road to me.
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I’ve been kind of running all of the past few years, even sprinting maybe. Now that I’m not running as much anymore, now that I’m just…
Nov 2019
Renting in London
, written on
Nov 4
in category Life in London.
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When I first lived in London about four years ago, I lived with housemates. That was pretty fun: I was able to help my housemate who was…
Nov 2018
Better all the time
, written on
Nov 27
in category Road to me.
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I’ve been extremely lucky in life so far. I’ve been given so many great opportunities, and I’ve received most of them with open arms and…
Mar 2018
Twenty-one
, written on
Mar 11
in category Road to me.
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This is it. Tomorrow is the start of a new life, of a new chapter, a new section with a new rhythm, a new feel, a new baseline. We’ve just…
May 2014
Twenty thieves
, written on
May 9
in category Prose.
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There once were twenty thieves, sitting in the shade of a giant blade of grass. They had a leader, a strong, but little man. He stood up…