I recently upgraded to a 2018 MacBook Pro. I’m enjoying the additional cores and memory (😀) and coming to terms with the touchbar (🤨). A low point of my first week came when I plugged into my external display, and the image looked really bad. In this post, I’ll describe what I learned and how I managed to fix it. Read more on Fixing the External Monitor Color Problem with My 2018 MacBook Pro…
Author: John Ruble
Creating Azure WebJobs in F#
My colleague Brian recently wrote about Azure Functions in F#. Azure Functions are great, and I definitely recommend them if they fit your use case.
These functions are built on top of an older background processing system called WebJobs. While Functions have largely eclipsed WebJobs, there remain certain [situations][webjobs-vs-functions] where the latter is still a better fit. Read more on Creating Azure WebJobs in F#…
Folding Away Mutations in F#
I’ve been working in F# lately, and one of its smaller features has had a big impact on my programming style: Variables are immutable by default. If you want to change something, you have to declare it mutable. Sometimes, this is what I naturally reach for, and the language rubs my nose in it.
Here’s a story of one of those instances, and a new pattern I’ve picked up as a result. Read more on Folding Away Mutations in F#…
Headless Chrome with Testem on VSTS-Hosted Agents
I previously wrote about building a Node app on VSTS Windows agents. Since then, we’ve started using headless Chrome on those agents. Here’s how. Read more on Headless Chrome with Testem on VSTS-Hosted Agents…
Review: Kinesis Freestyle Edge Keyboard
I’ve been a happy user of wasd mechanical keyboards at home and work for years, but lately I’ve grown interested in improved ergonomics. Some of my colleagues use various generations of Microsoft ergo boards, but I wanted the flexibility of a split board and didn’t want to give up mechanical switches.
When I learned of Kinesis’ new split mechanical keyboard (shortly after its successful Kickstarter), I knew I had to try it. Read more on Review: Kinesis Freestyle Edge Keyboard…
Tips for Building Your Node App on VSTS Windows Agents
Say you’re building a modern web front end with tools in the JavaScript ecosystem, but you work for a Microsoft shop, so you’re looking down the barrel of running CI in Windows on [Visual Studio Team Services][VSTS]. I’ve been in this situation for a while now, and I have a few tips. Read more on Tips for Building Your Node App on VSTS Windows Agents…
Table Relationship Diagrams with Graphviz
I recently found myself looking for a modern tool to diagram relationships between tables of data. When I came up short, I used a very old tool instead. Read more on Table Relationship Diagrams with Graphviz…
.NET Core, OSX, libcurl, and OpenSSL
.NET Core makes it convenient to develop and test C# code across platforms. On my current project, this means we can do much of our work on Macs without ever firing up a Windows VM.
Even the best abstraction layers occasionally leak, though. Here’s a story of an OSX-specific issue we encountered, what we learned, and how to resolve it. Read more on .NET Core, OSX, libcurl, and OpenSSL…
DIY Dynamic DNS with OpenWRT and Google Domains
Dynamic DNS (DDNS) can give your home’s changing IP a reliable hostname. I recently redid mine with some new tools. Here’s how it went! Read more on DIY Dynamic DNS with OpenWRT and Google Domains…
fish (Shell) for a Week
I’ve been meaning to try out fish for ages, and I was finally inspired to dive in after reading Julia Evans’ recent take on it. In this post, I’ll describe some highlights from my first week. Read more on fish (Shell) for a Week…