Blog

Using interfaces to create boundaries in code

Ideas from Clean Code Chapter 8 by Robert Martin

Posted on August 3, 2024

Our engineering team is progressing through Clean Code by Robert Martin, and one of the chapters that I’ve found most interesting so far is Chapter 8 where he talks about boundaries. One of the things Robert Martin calls attention to is the fact that our applications are often an amalgamation... [Read More]
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Setting up SSL for GoDaddy hosted WordPress with CloudFlare

Creating SSL certificates for a GoDaddy hosted WordPress site

Posted on July 28, 2024

The only experience I have with setting up a website is my experience setting up this website using GitHub Pages. There are a lot of features that GitHub gives you right out of the box if you use GitHub Pages, one of which being the checkbox to enforce HTTPS when... [Read More]
Tags:
- tech
- ssl
- wordpress
- godaddy
Meaningful Names, Functions, and Comments

Reading the first few chapters of Clean Code by Robert Martin

Posted on June 25, 2024

Our broader engineering team recently started reading Clean Code by Robert Martin, and while some of his opinions seems to be strongly contested within the software engineering world, he is still seen as a thought-leader for writing good software and following reasonable practices. Two of the chapters that stood out... [Read More]
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Multi-page, single file Dash Plotly applications

A solution for large, data intensive apps

Posted on March 24, 2024

I have been working on a large Dash Plotly application, and it was becoming really unwieldy to manage all the code for the application in one app.py file. I initially tried to pull some code into a separate file containing Dash elements needed on the page, but this felt like... [Read More]
Tags:
- tech
- python
- dash
- plotly
Building long term personal projects

An attitude shift towards having a long term project

Posted on March 19, 2024

Over the last two years, my GitHub has mostly been a collection of repositories where I have demoed or experimented with different technologies that piqued my interest. A lot of the repositories I created during that time had a handful of commits, and then I swiftly abandoned them to move... [Read More]
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Think Python by Allen B. Downey

A thorough and concise resource for learning Python

Posted on March 10, 2024

I’ve been working on leveling up my Python programming, and a friend recommended I check out the book Think Python by Allen B. Downey. The second edition of the book is available free online as a PDF, so I grabbed a copy and checked it out. [Read More]
Tags:
- tech
- python
- computer_science
- books
AI Generated Python notebooks with Noterous

My experience of awestruck and frustration

Posted on February 4, 2024

Someone in the r/datascience subreddit mentioned a tool called Noterous, which uses AI to generate Python notebooks and create data visualizations. The OP in the subreddit said they are using it to create Plotly visualizations more easily with AI, and since I have been spending a lot of time using... [Read More]
Tags:
- tech
- noterous
- plotly
- python
Python Data Visualizations with Dash

A lightweight solution to visualizing DataFrames

Posted on January 23, 2024

I recently started a project where I wanted to integrate a lightweight framework into my Python application to display data visualizations. I first tinkered around with converting my project into a Flask app, but without a lot of experience with HTML and CSS, I was finding it difficult to get... [Read More]
Tags:
- tech
- dash
- plotly
- python
- dataframes
Configuring a custom domain with GitHub Pages

Switching from the GitHub subdomain to a custom domain in roughly an hour

Posted on January 6, 2024

I’ve been wanting to purchase a custom domain name for my personal website since I first started it, but I wasn’t totally sure where I wanted to register it or what I wanted to call it, plus I was a little intimidated by the thought of having to get deep... [Read More]
Tags:
- tech
- dns
- github_pages
Reflections from the NASM Certified Nutrition Coaching program

My thoughts on the program and what I got out of it

Posted on December 5, 2023

I recently passed the exam for the NASM Certified Nutrition Coaching certificate. Nutrition is something I have been really interested in for quite some time now, and I originally got the idea to complete the program because I wanted to be able to sort though all the conflicting information about... [Read More]
Tags:
- nutrition
- fitness
Adding a Favicon image to browser tabs

How I got this work on my site

Posted on October 28, 2023

When I first got my website running I was annoyed that I didn’t have an image to show on the browser tabs, but I had bigger things to tackle so I pushed that aside as something I would figure out later. Over a year later, I finally got to a... [Read More]
Tags:
- tech
- favicon
Setting up web analytics and data collection with Google Analytics

My experience implementing it on my website

Posted on October 24, 2023

The other day when I was working on my website, I had a question about whether I could embed Google Analytics into the site to collect analytics data about the web traffic the site is receiving. I’ve worked with Google Analytics before at a previous job, but only as a... [Read More]
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Encrypted Credentials in Rails

A simple and safe way to store project credentials

Posted on October 20, 2023

I recently encountered Encrypted Credentials in Ruby on Rails as a method for storing encrypted credentials in your Rails project. It allows you to store and edit important credentials needed by your application without having to check passwords in plain text, and it makes it easier to share the credentials... [Read More]
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GraphQL as an alternative to REST APIs

I tried GraphQL, and I really liked it

Posted on October 13, 2023

I was perusing the Ruby on Rails courses on Udemy recently and came across a course on using GraphQL with Ruby on Rails. It was a short hour, and a half of video content, so I purchased it and followed along with the videos. The course instructor, Alex Deva, does... [Read More]
Tags:
- tech
- graphql
- ruby
- ruby_on_rails
Three different ways to iterate through maps in Ruby

An interesting thing I picked up learning Ruby

Posted on October 12, 2023

I’ve spent a lot of time working on increasing my knowledge of Ruby on Rails recently, and I had someone explain to me the three different ways to iterate through maps in Ruby. I was super excited about this because up until this point I thought there was only one... [Read More]
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Bewildering language features in Ruby

A few things I found puzzling, yet very powerful

Posted on September 16, 2023

I didn’t have any experience with Ruby on Rails prior to joining eSpark Learning, and I’ve been learning it on the go by jumping into our Rails projects to make contributions. Though I have worked with a few other object oriented programming languages in the past, Ruby on Rails feels... [Read More]
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Teams should be limiting work in progress

Why too many tickets in progress is distracting and ineffective

Posted on August 3, 2023

I recently took a short course on the Scrum Alliance website to fulfill part of my Scrum Education Units (SEU) requirement called “How Successful Teams Limit Work In Progress”. This course really resonated with me because the anti-patterns that they discuss in the course are all things I have experienced... [Read More]
Tags:
- csm
- scrum_master
- scrum
- agile
Requirements to renew the Certified Scrum Master certification

What I learned after much researching

Posted on August 1, 2023

I got my Certified Scrum Master certification a little over a year ago, and I recently got an email from the Scrum Alliance asking whether I had been studying Scrum. This is what the email body looked like: [Read More]
Tags:
- csm
- scrum_master
- scrum
- agile
Reflections from the AWS Solutions Architect Associate exam

What was effective and what I would do differently

Posted on June 30, 2023

I passed the AWS Solutions Architect Associate exam back in April and the process was so taxing that it’s taken me two months to write a reflection about the exam. I passed on the first try so surely I did some things right, but I think I will make a... [Read More]
Tags:
- aws
- solutions_architect
Gitkraken is so worth the money

Why it's one of my most trusted tools

Posted on April 13, 2023

Over the years, Gitkraken has become of one my most beloved software tools that I cannot live without. It’s not that I couldn’t use git from the Command Line (for free), but why introduce additional complexities into my day when I don’t have to. For me personally, using Command Line... [Read More]
Tags:
- software_tooling
- git
Connecting VPCs to other networks and services

A quick run through of services that are useful to know about VPCs

Posted on March 18, 2023

There are a handful of more complex VPC services that I left out in my previous post about VPCs, so I wanted to run through them to check my understanding. [Read More]
Tags:
- aws
- vpcs
- networking
Ukulele major scales from a guitarist's perspective

A jumping off point for playing major scales on the ukulele

Posted on March 15, 2023

I haven’t played the ukulele much since the pandemic started, but recently my friend let me borrow his ukulele to take to a Bluegrass jam. At the time when I was playing ukulele in 2020, I was having a really difficult time figuring out the scales. Stepping away from it... [Read More]
Tags:
- music
- ukulele
- guitar
- scales
An overview of VPC services

The basic components, and their relationships

Posted on March 14, 2023

One of the hardest pieces of AWS to digest for me is the VPC/ Networking section. I didn’t take any Networking classes in college, and I don’t have a ton of experience working on networking in different jobs I’ve had so far which makes it more challenging. I’ve had to... [Read More]
Tags:
- aws
- vpcs
- networking
Finding song melodies on guitar

My journey to finding melody lines and playing them back

Posted on February 21, 2023

When I first started, one of the most intriguing things about playing the guitar was how quickly and effortlessly experienced players could pick out the melody in a song and play it back. Since this seemed like such a supernatural talent, I couldn’t help but want to understand how it... [Read More]
Tags:
- music
- guitar
- melodies
- scales
Has the AWS CCP exam gotten harder?

In my experience it has!

Posted on February 20, 2023

I just renewed my AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam over the weekend, and the exam was a lot more difficult than I remember. The AWS CCP exam is classified as one of the “Apprentice” level tests, and is seen as one of the easier exams in the ecosystem of AWS... [Read More]
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The Garmin Vivoactive 4 is worth it

I broke down and bought a smartwatch

Posted on February 9, 2023

After Thanksgiving, I was perusing the online Black Friday sales, and decided I was finally going to pull the trigger on buying a smartwatch. I resisted the smartwatch trend for years up until this point. I didn’t want another device flashing, beeping, and buzzing to grab my attention. I’ve kept... [Read More]
Tags:
- fitness
- garmin
- vivoactive4
- smartwatch
The AWS Cloud Practitioner and Solutions Architect Associate exams are both difficult

I underestimated the Cloud Practitioner exam

Posted on February 2, 2023

I’ve been studying for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate exam and naively thought I could renew my AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certificate along the way as a refresher, and a way to build confidence for the exam. Unfortunately that was not the case, and that idea backfired on me.... [Read More]
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DNS Record Types

Understand the most common record types and how they are used

Posted on January 29, 2023

I recently went through the Route 53 section of the study materials for the AWS Certified Solution Architect Associate exam and realized I have never fully understood the different DNS record types. I have made some minor changes to DNS records at work, but admittedly, I didn’t completely understand what... [Read More]
Tags:
- aws
- dns
- dns_records
Fighting analysis paralysis with AWS database services

A starting point for choosing a service that fits your use case

Posted on November 22, 2022

AWS offers a wide variety of database services that can feel overwhelming when you are trying to find a service that best suits your use case. I can attest to this because there have been times when I’m looking for a database service to support one of my projects or... [Read More]
Tags:
- databases
- aws
Encrypting an EBS Volume

Steps to make an unencrypted volume, encrypted

Posted on November 9, 2022

I covered some different features of Amazon Elastic Block Storage (EBS) in the last post, and I lightly touched on the encryption option that you are presented with when creating a new EBS volume. The interesting thing is if you create an EBS volume that is unencrypted, you can’t simply... [Read More]
Tags:
- ebs
- aws
- ec2
- encryption
- snapshots
Amazon EBS Under A Microscope

Looking at volumes up close

Posted on November 7, 2022

The study course that I’m taking for my AWS Solutions Architect Assoc. exam has quizzes at the end of each topic, and I was doing really well until I took the quiz for EBS, and failed. In my experience, EBS hasn’t been something I have spent a lot of time... [Read More]
Tags:
- ebs
- aws
- ec2
- ssd
- hdd
S3 Tricks and Treats

Sweeter than Halloween candy

Posted on October 31, 2022

It’s Halloween and what better way to spend it than reading about all the great tricks and treats in AWS S3! Here are some cool features and little hacks that can be used to enhance your experience with Amazon S3. [Read More]
Tags:
- s3
- aws
AWS Identity Access Management (IAM) Explained

Breaking down the different components

Posted on October 30, 2022

I’m currently studying for the AWS Solutions Architect Associate exam and I realized I didn’t understand AWS Identity Access Management (IAM) as well as I thought, despite taking the AWS Cloud Practitioner exam a few years ago. It is really important to have a good understanding of IAM because it... [Read More]
Tags:
- aws_iam
- permissions
- aws
Exploring the Redshift Data API

A quick demo

Posted on October 27, 2022

Lately I’ve spent some time exploring Amazon’s Redshift Data API tool, and I have to say, I’m loving it. Not only have I found the Data API easy to use, but I think it’s also an appropriate solution for all kinds of data problems. I wanted to layout some documentation... [Read More]
Tags:
- redshift_data_api
- redshift
- api
- aws
- python
- ruby
Jet Brains IDEs are worth a try

Why I'm a Jet Brains fan girl, and you should be too

Posted on September 2, 2022

I’ve been using Jet Brains IDEs for several years now, and I evangelize them to other engineers every chance I get. Over the years I have used a large swath of their tools including: CLion, IntelliJ, PyCharm, DataGrip and RubyMine, and they consistently impress me with their great features and... [Read More]
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Subdomains 101 and Subdomain Takeovers

A few things I learned about DNS, Subdomains and Subdomain Takeovers

Posted on August 27, 2022

I recently learned about the risk of subdomain takeovers and found the issue both fascinating and terrifying. I haven’t done a ton of network related work in my career, so it’s something I’m actively trying to learn more about and get experience with. I still have a lot more to... [Read More]
Tags:
- dns
- subdomain_takeovers
The Problems Scrum Solves and How To Make It Effective

My takeaways from the Certified Scrum Master certification

Posted on August 22, 2022

A few months ago, I took the 2-day Certified Scrum Master course through KnowledgeHut and sat for the CSM exam. I had an interest in doing the course for the past few years because I wanted to improve my understanding of the agile process. Across the different jobs I’ve had... [Read More]
Tags:
- csm
- scrum_master
- scrum
- agile
Please, don't sudo install gems

Ruby install lessons I learned the hard way

Posted on August 7, 2022

After I accepted a new job at eSpark Learning last summer, panic soon set in that I had zero Ruby on Rails experience. I turned to Udemy to find a course on building applications with Ruby on Rails. While the course spent a great deal of time covering things like... [Read More]
Tags:
- ruby
- gems
- installation
Setting up a website with Jekyll

My experience using Github Pages and Jekyll to create a personal website

Posted on July 31, 2022

I recently set up this website using Github Pages and Jekyll and since this was a totally new experience for me, I thought it would be interesting to write about my experiences, and the things I still have to learn. Until recently my digital footprint has been very small by... [Read More]
Tags:
- github_pages
- jekyll

Using interfaces to create boundaries in code

Ideas from Clean Code Chapter 8 by Robert Martin

Setting up SSL for GoDaddy hosted WordPress with CloudFlare

Creating SSL certificates for a GoDaddy hosted WordPress site

Meaningful Names, Functions, and Comments

Reading the first few chapters of Clean Code by Robert Martin

Multi-page, single file Dash Plotly applications

A solution for large, data intensive apps

Building long term personal projects

An attitude shift towards having a long term project

Think Python by Allen B. Downey

A thorough and concise resource for learning Python

AI Generated Python notebooks with Noterous

My experience of awestruck and frustration

Python Data Visualizations with Dash

A lightweight solution to visualizing DataFrames

Configuring a custom domain with GitHub Pages

Switching from the GitHub subdomain to a custom domain in roughly an hour

Reflections from the NASM Certified Nutrition Coaching program

My thoughts on the program and what I got out of it

Adding a Favicon image to browser tabs

How I got this work on my site

Setting up web analytics and data collection with Google Analytics

My experience implementing it on my website

Encrypted Credentials in Rails

A simple and safe way to store project credentials

GraphQL as an alternative to REST APIs

I tried GraphQL, and I really liked it

Three different ways to iterate through maps in Ruby

An interesting thing I picked up learning Ruby

Bewildering language features in Ruby

A few things I found puzzling, yet very powerful

Teams should be limiting work in progress

Why too many tickets in progress is distracting and ineffective

Requirements to renew the Certified Scrum Master certification

What I learned after much researching

Reflections from the AWS Solutions Architect Associate exam

What was effective and what I would do differently

Gitkraken is so worth the money

Why it's one of my most trusted tools

Connecting VPCs to other networks and services

A quick run through of services that are useful to know about VPCs

Ukulele major scales from a guitarist's perspective

A jumping off point for playing major scales on the ukulele

An overview of VPC services

The basic components, and their relationships

Finding song melodies on guitar

My journey to finding melody lines and playing them back

Has the AWS CCP exam gotten harder?

In my experience it has!

The Garmin Vivoactive 4 is worth it

I broke down and bought a smartwatch

The AWS Cloud Practitioner and Solutions Architect Associate exams are both difficult

I underestimated the Cloud Practitioner exam

DNS Record Types

Understand the most common record types and how they are used

Fighting analysis paralysis with AWS database services

A starting point for choosing a service that fits your use case

Encrypting an EBS Volume

Steps to make an unencrypted volume, encrypted

Amazon EBS Under A Microscope

Looking at volumes up close

S3 Tricks and Treats

Sweeter than Halloween candy

AWS Identity Access Management (IAM) Explained

Breaking down the different components

Exploring the Redshift Data API

A quick demo

Jet Brains IDEs are worth a try

Why I'm a Jet Brains fan girl, and you should be too

Subdomains 101 and Subdomain Takeovers

A few things I learned about DNS, Subdomains and Subdomain Takeovers

The Problems Scrum Solves and How To Make It Effective

My takeaways from the Certified Scrum Master certification

Please, don't sudo install gems

Ruby install lessons I learned the hard way

Setting up a website with Jekyll

My experience using Github Pages and Jekyll to create a personal website