Using AWS Lambda to improve Lambda Error Reports

I use AWS Lambda for multiple small things, like my own music scrobbler and tracking replies to Twitter threads. One use that I really like Lambda for is just making sure everything looks A-OK on my server. I mean, why pay a service like Pingdom to do something that I can do in a 20-line Python script?

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Posted on 2018-05-20

Lazily Evaluated Learning

One of the things you'll often hear as a programmer is that to be successful, you need to be constantly learning. Sometimes that's learning about a new technology, or learning a technology you use more in depth. It feels to me that this is getting harder and harder - there are always more frameworks, more programming languages, more tools to learn. Keeping up is difficult, especially if you have other people or things that demand your time. I have a little trick I've been using for some time, and I'd like to share my secret with you, dear reader. I call it lazily evaluated learning.

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Posted on 2018-03-03

Writing Firefox Web Extensions at Milwaukee Hack and Tell

Just over two weeks ago, RokkinCat conducted their 14th Hack & Tell. Since I wasn't able to participate last October, I was eager to spend some time working on some project ideas I've been thinking about! This time, I didn't have a single strong idea - instead, I spent my time playing around writing extensions for Firefox using the new(ish) WebExtensions API.

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Posted on 2018-02-12

What Makes a Project "Successful"?

Last night, I was musing about personal projects I undertook in 2017, and I realized that of the two big ones that I made, I didn't know if I could judge either as a success.

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Posted on 2018-01-10

January Milwaukee Hack 'n' Tell

Once again, I found myself participating in a Milwaukee Hack 'n' Tell, organized by RokkinCat and conducted at Ward 4. I wrote some notes on how the day went in my dev journal, so I thought I'd share the experience here!

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Posted on 2017-01-31