Between and I took 9227 steps.
IndieWeb post types
This content type is full of IndieWeb post types, which are all content types which allow me to take greater ownership of my own data. These are likely unrelated to my blog posts. You can find a better breakdown by actual post kind below:
Between and I took 6831 steps.
Between and I took 8079 steps.
Between and I took 2275 steps.
Preaching about Firefox Containers (and how they can change your Internet life)
This is a great post by Jon about Firefox Containers and the power they can hold.
I lazily use them as a way to have i.e. multiple email accounts logged in, or at work having several AWS accounts logged in at once but have also got some pieces in place to containerise certain privacy-infringing companies' attempts to track me.
Recommended read: Preaching about Firefox Containers (and how they can change your Internet life) https://jon.sprig.gs/blog/post/1137
I will not be attending Intro to Vue.js on
Unfortunately this clashes with the Women in Tech Takeover Digital Lincoln (https://www.meetup.com/digitallincoln/events/261313886/)
I will be attending Notts Techfast - Dan Caseley: What do testers even do all day? on
This will be the first time I'm attending Tech On Toast / TechFast, so I'm not looking forward to the early start, but Dan will make it worth it!
This is another post you really need to read, if you haven't already, as it makes you really think about the way you communicate.
I know a lot of people who use the term 'you guys' as a gender-neutral term, but after reading this article it really helps persuade you that the term is actually not as inclusive as you think.
For a couple of years now I've been making an effort to use gender-neutral ways to address groups, and I hope after reading this you will too.
Recommended read: You Guys https://www.xaprb.com/blog/you-guys/
Correctly using bookmarks (instead of reposts)
As I've embraced indie post types, such as reposts, I've noticed that actually I've been using them wrong.
Looking at https://indieweb.org/bookmark#Repost it appears I've been conflating a "retweet" on Twitter with a "repost", thinking they were the same. Alas, they are not, and it makes more sense to be a bookmark.
I've since updated the posts using the wrong type and will get things right next time!
https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/on-writing-well/
Being able to write semi-readable written text with technical terminology is a huge skill, and makes such a difference compared to not being able to write it.
I've found that since blogging more, my written language has gotten a lot better, and significantly makes my job easier.
I've worked with a number of brilliant engineers who can't explain themselves as well in written forms, which means commit messages and core pieces of documentation are difficult to understand.
Remember that you're never going to be the only person reading something, so make your content well thought out, re-read it and ask someone else to read through it to check it's OK.
Recommended read: https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/on-writing-well/ https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/on-writing-well/
http://angersock.com/blog/2019/01/27/observations-on-burnout/
Burnout sucks. There are a number of signs to pick up on it before it fully manifests which this article talks about. Having gone through it in the past, it's not something you want to go through, and can have some severely lasting effects that are hard to come back from.
Recommended read: http://angersock.com/blog/2019/01/27/observations-on-burnout/ https://web.archive.org/web/20190423185636/https://angersock.com/blog/2019/01/27/observations-on-burnout/
http://jameelajamil.co.uk/post/181263516735/tell-him-by-jameela-jamil
Tell Him is a really important post by Jameela Jamil - if you don't read this, I'm incredibly disappointed in you
Recommended read: http://jameelajamil.co.uk/post/181263516735/tell-him-by-jameela-jamil http://jameelajamil.co.uk/post/181263516735/tell-him-by-jameela-jamil
https://www.theguardian.com/info/2018/nov/30/bye-bye-mongo-hello-postgres
This is an incredible read about a huge undertaking the Guardian took to migrate two decades of content of migration with zero downtime - it's a great story and has a lot of great learnings in there
Recommended read: https://www.theguardian.com/info/2018/nov/30/bye-bye-mongo-hello-postgres https://www.theguardian.com/info/2018/nov/30/bye-bye-mongo-hello-postgres
https://www.vidarholen.net/contents/blog/?p=746
In every programming language, there is a linting tool that can help pick up on some common style issues. ShellCheck isn't one of those - it's so much more!
I've been using it for many years now, and since it came into my life it's honestly changed the way I use shell scripts. There have been so many pitfalls that I've avoided falling into since learning about them (and adding ShellCheck to my Vim linting setup.
This is a great read from Vidar, the ShellCheck author, about a case where it could've caught issues that caused the deletion of a production database!
Recommended read: https://www.vidarholen.net/contents/blog/?p=746 https://www.vidarholen.net/contents/blog/?p=746
I will be attending Notts IoT Mini Hack 2019 on
My first impressions with the Pixel 3A
Last week I replaced my OnePlus 3 with a Pixel 3A.
Both Anna (https://annadodson.co.uk) and I have been thinking about getting a new phone for a while, but as both our phones were doing fairly ok, and we didn't want any unnecessary expenses, we decided to keep an eye out but not yet get anything.
I'd originally heard about the Pixel 3A on the TechMeme Ride Home podcast (https://anchor.fm/techmeme-ride-home/episodes/Tue--0507---All-The-Headlines-From-Google-IO-e3v85p) which sounded really nice.
But then when I saw both Ed George ( https://twitter.com/Sp4ghettiCode ) and Graham Smith ( https://twitter.com/whoisgraham ) tweeting about the fact that they had just got one, I was very interested. As respected Android devs, I see them both as having done the research and know what they're doing - so it meant that I didn't have to do as much research, right??
I could've waited, in all fairness, but Google did a deal where you got a Nest Home Hub, too, so it meant the phone was effectively £280 instead of £400, and we all know I love a good deal. Unfortunately that it still in the box, as is the Google Home Mini I've got, but maybe one day they'll make their way out - we're an Alexa household currently, but are looking at being multi-platform.
So what are my opening thoughts, one week in?
- The migration tool was pretty cool, especially being able to just connect up another phone and have it sync, but for some reason my Google Play Store decided not to download anything so that didn't quite work as expected
- I had rooted my OnePlus 3 so I could get better privacy control over my device, but hadn't used much on the rooting side for a while, largely because Google are making it such a pain to do. I decided I wouldn't root this device quite yet, which means I'm able to use Google Pay - which so far I've done a couple of times and it's been pretty useful, but has just saved me getting my wallet out
- Battery is much better than my two year old OnePlus 3, and the second day I had it I was tethering + playing music almost all day without it even running out of charge the following morning. Pretty decent!
- I am however missing some of the convenience gestures I could use from the lock screen - turning the torch on quickly, and controlling my music
- I'm a fan of the always-on display, especially as it prompts me with the upcoming calendar event
- The fast charge seems to be on par with the OnePlus Dash Charge - again a big decided in whether I got it or not, as being able to quickly boost battery was very important
- It has a headphone jack, so I'm happy
- Booting is super speedy - not that I need to that often, but it's good to have!
- I'm liking Android Pie, although I'm sad I no longer have the multitasking button so can't toggle apps as quickly
- I bought an official case, which although a bit pricey was quite nice, and has a good feel to it
- The camera seems to be pretty decent, from the few shots I've taken of our black cat, Morph
Overall it seems to be going well - hopefully it'll last as long as my OnePlus 3!
EDIT: And something I forgot to mention was that the fingerprint sensor isn't in my location. I'm very used to it being where the home button is on my OnePlus 3, and combined with the placement of the headphone jack on top, it means I'll regularly unlock my phone as I'm taking it out of my pocket, which is quite annoying.
EDIT: I also found the way to easily swap between apps is by swiping on the soft touch buttons, left to right. And by holding it for longer I can skip between multiple apps - nice stuff!
Thoughtbot's Application Security Guide
I found this when listening to episode 194 of the Bike Shed podcast: My PGP Shame. I'd only added this episode to my playlist as it was an interesting title, but listening to it, it was even better than I thought.
There was some great stuff in there about Thoughtbot's application security guide, linked, which is a definite must-read.
My favourite quote of the episode, though, is the following exchange:
I've got to be honest, how does anything work at all? Oh computers don't work
Recommended read: Thoughtbot's Application Security Guide https://github.com/thoughtbot/guides/blob/master/security/application.md
https://carolgilabert.me/blog/impostor-syndrome
This is a really great post! I think it was Jess Rose's talk about it where I realised it was a thing and not just something I felt. Talking about it and making others aware of it is good, and I'm definitely going to steal some of her coping strategies
Recommended read: https://carolgilabert.me/blog/impostor-syndrome https://carolgilabert.me/blog/impostor-syndrome
Between and I took 35 steps.
Between and I took 1 steps.
Joining PHPMiNDS' organising team
I'm super excited to announce that I'm joining the organising team for https://phpminds.org/ !
Trawling back through the Meetup.com group for PHPMiNDS, I found the earliest time I marked myself as attending was November 2016.
I've never been a PHP dev, although I've dabbled for years. But I've always seen it as a great community, and have been attending for most months since then.
Attending tech meetups has always been about bettering myself, and learning more, and the talks at PHPMiNDS can absolutely be applied to my work, despite it being a different tech stack.
Before https://www.jvt.me/posts/2019/04/11/phpminds-april/ Shaun had mentioned to me about looking for another pair of hands with organising PHPMiNDS, and after a little bit of time to mull it over I decided I would definitely be interested in getting involved.
I'm really excited to start to help out Adoni (https://pavlakis.uk) and Shaun (https://shaunhare.co.uk) with organising the meetup, and I hope continue making it as awesome for others as it has been to me.
I will be attending PHPMiNDS - Introducing Agile and Agile Principles on
Between and I took 7417 steps.
Between and I took 8293 steps.
I will be attending Tech Nottingham June 2019: DevOps And Time-Travelling Code on
Between and I took 3750 steps.
https://lukeb.co.uk/2019/05/15/your-event-probably-shouldn-t-be-in-a-pub/
Great post by Luke about how we should be more inclusive in events and whether alcohol-oriented is the nicest message for those wanting to get involved.
Recommended read: https://lukeb.co.uk/2019/05/15/your-event-probably-shouldn-t-be-in-a-pub/ https://lukeb.co.uk/2019/05/15/your-event-probably-shouldn-t-be-in-a-pub/
Between and I took 9123 steps.
I will be attending Homebrew Website Club Nottingham on
I will be attending OggCamp 2019 on
I will be attending DevOpsDays London on
I may be attending IndieWebCamp Brighton 2019 on
This is more difficult to get to than the Oxford IWC, but let's see!
I will be attending Digital Lincoln - TAKEOVER! Women in Tech on
I will not be attending IndieWebCamp Oxford on
I will now be attending IndieWebCamp Amsterdam - sorry Oxford! Hope everyone has a great time.
I will not be attending TestBash Manchester on
I originally thought I would be able to make it to this, but it looks like I'll no longer be able to go!
I will be attending DDD East Midlands on
Between and I took 6595 steps.
Between and I took 11557 steps.
This is a great writeup about how to harden your SSH setup using 2-factor authentication. Would really recommend it!
Recommended read: Hardening SSH with 2fa https://gist.github.com/lizthegrey/9c21673f33186a9cc775464afbdce820
I will be attending Women In Tech June 2019 - Negotiating For Fun And Profit on
Between and I took 10208 steps.
Between and I took 8346 steps.
Between and I took 6773 steps.
I will be attending Tech Nottingham May 2019: IoT With Only Your Laptop (and the next steps) on
I will not be attending Homebrew Website Club on
Unfortunately this clashes https://www.meetup.com/Nottingham-Cyber-Capital-One/events/260280774/ so I'll be attending that instead.