All entries of my technical and business blog

Tell Shimo VPN to Connect with Applescript

Feb 25, 2019 macos

For some clients, I have to VPN before I can push to their git repositories. I’ve been using a few VPN clients, but I finally settled on one. I’m a huge fan of Shimo but one thing that bothered me was that I still had to click and remember to be on VPN when I wanted to push my changes.

Search Goodreads Bookmarklet

Feb 4, 2019 javascript

When people suggest books to you, it’s common that they’ll send you a link to Amazon. If it’s a good book, I want to add it to my Goodreads list so I remember to read it later. This has been a pretty manual process, and that bothered me. I looked and found some Google Chrome extensions, but those didn’t seem to work for me anymore. So, I created my own bookmarklet.

How to Get More Feedback from Your Boss

Jan 28, 2019 business

Feedback from your boss or superior is incredibly important. How do you know if you’re getting all of the feedback they have for you, thought? Sometimes people are distracted - sometimes they don’t know if they’re pummeling you with too much information.

Composer Security Concerns with Create Project

Jan 21, 2019 composer php security

One of the lesser known pieces of functionality from Composer is the ability to create a project from skeleton/scaffolding. This ability allows you to create a project structure, directory, files and requirements based on the suggested setup from the project maintainer. A common installation mechanism of Laravel uses this functionality. (Even I use it to save time and set up my own custom configuration for new project skeletons.)

Keep Data Migrations Separate from Database Migration

Jan 7, 2019 laravel mysql php

By now, you’ve probably written many database migrations in Laravel. But, then something else happens. Perhaps your business model changed, your data attributes changed or you’re just refactoring to a stronger architecture. Doesn’t matter which, you’re going to need to convert and migrate some data.

Techniques to Battle Expensive PHP Constructors

Dec 31, 2018 php

Whether you’ve made the class yourself or you’re using a pre-made SDK, there are times when the construction of an object might be expensive. Expense, in this case, pertains to memory, time, CPU cycles, basically anything that is above baseline.

What I Learned from My Most Recent Corporate Gig

Dec 24, 2018 business

I kind of hate that phrase, that buzzword-worthy label “corporate gig,” but I don’t know what else to call it. Office job? Large company employment? Anyway, I thought I’d take a bit to reflect on my last one and share a few things I learned.