A local PG session on a not-so-local container — Spinning up a Docker container is a pretty simple task. You grab an image, run a few commands, and in minutes you have a whole environment right at your fingertips. What happens when things need to get a little more complex than that? What about persistence? Opening ports? Sharing resources? …

Less repetitive tasks, less wasted time debugging, happier devs — There are a ton of different services out there geared towards improving a developer’s workflow. Each one aims to solve a myriad of problems that plague us every day. Sometimes they’re focused on improving existing open-source products, other times they offer a new paradigm for writing or testing code. …

A fast and functional library for supercharging your code — If you haven’t heard of the Ramda library for JavaScript then you’re missing out on a beautiful enhancement to the language. This library is crammed with a ton of useful functions and utilities that not only solve common problems, but make JavaScript better at functional programming. Ramda was developed as…

Run an entire OS without ever leaving the comfort of the browser — If you’re anything like me then you have a love-hate relationship with JavaScript. It is ubiquitous on the web, runs inside browsers and is the backbone of almost every web app. However, JavaScript isn’t the most robust language. It can be convoluted and frustrating, but is still one of the…

How to change the banner and what to put in it — Most default Linux login banners (or MOTD) leave much to be desired. The login message isn’t something that is made to be left as is. It is made to be changed, customized and extended to suit specific use-cases. If you frequently access a lot of different cloud or on-premises servers…

Solve problems. Save time. Go fast — Welcome back to another edition of: “Look at how much cool stuff this short bit of code can do!” In this installment, we’ll be exploring some really cool sections of Python code. These short one-liners solve a wide range of problems and can get you out of a jam if…

Stay on top of updates and the newest releases — Staying updated with the most fashionable development frameworks or languages can be an uphill battle. It seems like there is a shiny new release that you “should be using” every few days. Knowing which corner of the internet to keep an eye on is tricky. If you have a solid…

Returning to our favorite directory for some curious finds — Once again we are plumbing the depths of /usr/bin for some hidden gems. Searching for interesting programs hidden within an ocean of options waiting to be dusted off and taken for a spin. This plethora of fascinating Linux utilities seems endless. In this edition of: “hey, this looks neat!” we’re…

You don’t always need a big fat relational database — Love it or hate it, at some point in your career as a software developer you will have to write some SQL. Whether you’re using MySQL, Postgres or any other database flavor, the overhead of managing these solutions can be deceptively high. If all you need is to store some…