All 'development' related blog posts
EC2 Charges - They are NAT a joke
How to reduce your AWS costs by avoiding unnecessary NAT Gateway usage
15 September 2022
How to pause a Step Function while waiting on a response from a third party API
In this post we explore how you can pause a Step Function, using Task Tokens, while waiting on an external process to be completed
3 August 2022
How to use React Hooks with Redux
In this post we explore using React Hooks with Redux.
26 July 2022
AppSync and DynamoDB Lessons Learned
AppSync and DynamoDB - name a more iconic duo!? I’ll wait…
30 June 2022
Deploying an AWS AppSync API with WAF using CDK v2
In this tutorial, we’ll look at how you can leverage AWS CDK v2 to deploy an AppSync GraphQL API behind AWS WAF and use managed rules to protect against the...
25 May 2022
Scanning S3 Files with ClamAV and CDK
In this post we look at how to trigger virus scanning of files when they are uploaded to S3 utilising AWS CDK and Lambda container images
7 March 2022
Improving CDK development cycle
Spend less time waiting on deployments with CDK hot swaps
25 February 2022
CDK Lessons Learned
5 need to know lessons for any AWS Cloud Development Kit users
24 January 2022
Signs and Portents for 2022
In this post, Head of Learning Garth Gilmour, will make predictions for the tech industry in 2022
14 December 2021
Building an OpenSearch Index from DynamoDB
In this post we see how to set up an OpenSearch domain with a DynamoDB source
11 November 2021
Principled Autonomy
High performance teams consistently outperform other teams by a significant factor. But why is this - what is the secret sauce that allows one group of individuals to outshine another?
30 August 2021
Using TypeScript const assertions for fun and profit
How can we utilise the const assertion in TypeScript to flip the script and define types from immutable data?
29 April 2021
Lambda Container Images
Ever wish you could combine the portability of containers, with the scalability of Lambda functions? Well now you can!
5 March 2021
OODA Considered Harmful
Thoughts on why the OODA loop as applied to agile delivery is flawed or should even be considered harmful.
5 February 2021
The Truth of the 10X Developer
If you thought the 10X Developer concept was just a myth, think again. In this article Garth Gilmour convinces you otherwise
13 January 2021
The Perils of Advocacy
Developer advocacy is an extremely rewarding job but is it all sunshine and meadows or is there a darker flip side to this role?
4 January 2021
The Rise of the Developer Advocate
Thoughts on the move away from consultancy towards developer empowerment through advocacy and mentoring.
21 December 2020
TypeScript + React Hooks: Part 3
In this 3rd article in our series on using React Hooks with TypeScript, we will show how to enhance 'primitive' hooks into more complex functions, and highlight some of the...
11 December 2020
Should Developers be Ignorant?
Garth discusses his beliefs that junior developers should be given a safe space of blissful ignorance to play in, and only slowly exposed to the cruel realities of business. What...
7 December 2020
Signs and Portents for 2021
Each December, our Head of Learning reflects on emerging trends, and makes some foolish predictions for the year to come. Read on to see that the future holds...
1 December 2020
An AWS Lambda Advent-ure in Python
Let’s build a web-based, programming-related advent calendar using AWS Lambda, Python, Google Sheets and CDK. No chocolates I’m afraid, but along the way we’ll learn a bit about Serverless Python
30 November 2020
TypeScript + React Hooks: Part 2
In this follow-up to our introductory article to using React Hooks with TypeScript, we’ll continue to discuss how leveraging types & type safety can make life easier when writing components...
23 November 2020
TypeScript + React Hooks: Part 1 - The Basics
In this post, we delve into using TypeScript with React Hooks to develop in the front-end. Continuing our series of posts on the practical applications of TypeScript, and introducing another...
9 November 2020
10 reasons why WebStorm is better than VS Code
Ok, ok, I know the title is contentious but don't start with me. I've been locked up for over 9 weeks now due to COVID-19, home schooling my kids, doing...
18 May 2020
A Kotlin DSL for Everyone
Typically, we use Domain Specific Languages (DSLs) in configuration scenarios (think Gradle). But we can also use them internally to make our applications easier to understand.
23 January 2020
Using Koin for Dependency Injection
Koin provides a modern DI framework which supports Kotlin idioms and is usable across conventional, mobile and Cloud based applications.
29 November 2019
Code Generation With KotlinPoet
KotlinPoet provides a simple API for generating Kotlin source files. It allows you to automate what would otherwise be tedious and repetitive tasks.
28 November 2019
Don’t ThreeTen-d that Dates are easy with legacy Android
Why date and time is so difficult with older Android versions and the best approach to solve this
20 November 2019
Static Types vs Dynamic Types. Stop fighting and make my life easier already
A look at how both statically and dynamically typed languages have pros and cons and how we should identify the benefits and choose languages that provide the best of both...
17 October 2019
Why Strong Static Typing Is Your Friend
Last week my dear colleague Ryan wrote a blog post in praise of dynamic types. I would ask you not to judge him too harshly for this. It is a...
9 October 2019
Is 'Effective Kotlin' Effective?
‘Effective Kotlin' follows in the long line of renowned Effective programming books. But is it a worthy addition to the series?’
8 October 2019
Static types won't save us from bad code
Modern programming languages can be categorised in many ways, but the most common approach is to slice them by how they handle Types. Is using strong static typing a prerequisite...
3 October 2019
One Principle To Rule Them All?
The SOLID principles of software design provide guidelines on how we can make our code more readable, maintainable and extensible. They are universally accepted maxims that all engineers should...
12 September 2019
Does Readability Have a Cost?
In software, there is a constant tension between sufficiency - the need to say something in as few words as possible - and readability - the need to make things...
5 September 2019
Inaugural Kotlin Belfast User Group Meetup
A summary of the first meetup from the Kotlin Belfast User Group
26 March 2019
A Taste of Things to Come
As another busy year of training draws to a close it's traditional that I stick my head above the parapet and make some predictions for the New Year. For what...
7 December 2018
Programming in English
As an industry, we promote an education in science, technology, engineering and maths as the basis of software development, but in doing so, we risk ignoring the most important skill...
4 December 2018
Android databinding, with Kotlin!
The MVVM design pattern allows us to write code that is much easier to maintain, test, and reason about in Android development. In this post, we will describe how to...
15 January 2018
Why Android Development Is Better With Kotlin
5 Reasons Why Android development is better using Kotlin
3 January 2018
Avoiding Defensive Checks
When to use defensive checks and assertions in code and when to avoid
19 October 2017
Surging Forward
How we are revolutionising video and RTP/RTSP streaming on mobile devices
25 September 2017
Using Native Dependencies with AWS Lambda
How to use native dependencies with AWS Lambda and Functions as a Service
7 August 2017
Monads For The Masses
The third in a series of three, introducing Functional Programming concepts.
25 June 2017
Curry On Regardless
The second in a series of posts introducing Functional Programming concepts. This post looks at the closely related concepts of Currying and Partial Application
14 June 2017
Over-Thunking It
With the increasing adoption of functional programming there are strange terms slowly moving their way from academic obscurity to mainstream software engineering. Thanks mainly to the React and Redux frameworks,...
9 June 2017
Docker - Simplifying a Developer's World
Installing stuff is hard. Installing stuff is messy. Installing stuff is time consuming/expensive. As a trainer, I am constantly moving between different technology stacks, running different applications,...
1 June 2017
Spring Boot With Dropwizard Metrics
Introduction to using Spring Boot with Dropwizard Metrics
31 March 2017
Angular 1 with ES6
A brief introductory tutorial on how to combine ES6 and Angular 1
27 September 2016
Empowering ObservableCollection with Rx
An introduction to using ObservableCollection in Rx and C#
3 June 2016
Continuous Delivery Pipelines with Jenkins 2.0
How to create continuous delivery pipelines in Jenkins 2.0
28 April 2016
A Fresh Start with Ansible
A guide to using Ansible to automatically setup your OSX development environment
26 April 2016
Test Setup as a Sanity Check on your Design
The importance of listening to your tests as a sanity check on your design
15 April 2016
SIMD in Depth - Performance and Cost in C# and C++
SIMD in Depth - Performance and Cost in C# and C++ (Part 2 of 2)
7 April 2016
Parallelism on a Single Core - SIMD with C#
An introduction to SIMD and parallelism on a Single Core - SIMD with C# (Part 1 of 2)
21 March 2016
Simplify Your Code With C# 6.0
An overview of the latest features in C# 6.0 and how they will simplify your code
16 December 2015
Xamarin: A Panacea for Cross-Platform Mobile Development?
Xamarin - a panacea for cross-platform mobile development?
10 December 2015
Reading the Tea Leaves
Reading the tea leaves - predicting what's in store for 2016 and beyond
27 November 2015
The 3 Instil Check-in Commandments
3 essential things to check before you commit and push your changes to version control
3 April 2015
RxJava in Different Flavours of Java
Quick introduction to using RxJava in Java 7 and Java 8
5 August 2014
Reactive Trader on HanselMinutes
Listen to the people behind the Reactive Trader platform on HanselMinutes and hear them speak at React
25 July 2014
Java Shark Jump Redux
Opinion piece on why Java 8's attempt to jump the shark is just that
6 June 2014
Java Jumps the Shark
Java 8 attempts to 'jump the shark' with the introduction of streams, lambdas and 'FP'
4 June 2014
An Intro To Option(al)
Introduction to the Option, Optional and Maybe Types in Scala, Java and C#
25 May 2014
You Keep Using That Word
Opinion piece on the state of test driven development and unit testing
20 May 2014
Shakespeare's Seven Monkeys
A first step into using the Lucene text search engine library
12 December 2012
Simplicity Rules
Why is simplicity such an elusive quality in many developers code