Field notes,
in progress.
An irregular journal of software, leadership, and the occasional rant. Some pieces are practical. Some are me thinking out loud and hoping it’s useful to someone else.
How to contribute to open source software projects
Open-source software is everywhere. Most of the software you use daily is open-source or built on top of open-source components. Contributing to open-source software is a great way to learn new skills and gain experience. It can also be an opportunity to help others, as many people worldwide often use open-source projects. It might seem intimidating initially, but it doesn't need to be.
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Twitter Updates
Twitter's been part of my daily routine for years — sharing code snippets, career insights, and connecting with the tech community. But recent changes have me rethinking where I spend my digital energy.
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How to update all your software at once with Winget
Historically, updating software on Windows has been a pain. You had to go to each website, download the installer, and run it. This was especially true for software that was not installed from the Microsoft Store. While this is still true for some software, there is a new tool that makes updating software much easier.
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Meeting with your boss, made easy
Maybe you're nervous about meeting with your boss or maybe you rarely see them face to face. Either way, having more frequent and effective communication would be beneficial for your career. Regular and productive meetings enable you to make a positive impression and gather the information you need to do your job.
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Fixing bad SSH keys
SSH keys are a great way to authenticate with a remote server. They are secure, and they are easy to use. However, they can be a pain to manage. If you have ever had to deal with a bad SSH key, you know what I mean. Especially if you are using cloud services where IP addresses may be reused.
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7 Habits of a healthy marriage
Relationships are a challenge to maintain. It requires a lot of effort, time and understanding from both partners. If you want your relationship to last then you need to nurture it and make sure that you are not neglecting anything.
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How to calculate estimated reading time
When publishing an article it is often a nice touch to let users know roughly how long it will take to read, and what level of investment they can expect to make. While every reader is different, the average reader can ingest about 150 - 200 words per minute, depending on the type of text.
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Become more likable
For some people, being likable is a gift. We all know someone that everyone just seems to like. Being likable can make life easier and more enjoyable. It feels lovely when people are happy to see us. Your social life is better, and others are more willing to be helpful. You don’t have to be born likable. It’s an easy skill to develop.
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What is anxiety?
Do you feel anxious before a dental visit or starting something new? Have you ever gotten the jitters before speaking in front of a large group? Or sweaty palms when thinking about the future?
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Planning your digital marketing strategy
Social media is simple right? It's not. It's a complex system that requires a lot of planning. Not only does it require a lot of planning, but it also requires a lot of research. In the next few articles, I'll give you a few simple guides to help plan your digital marketing strategy.
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Loading Visual Studio environment in your default PowerShell profile
As a developer, you may want to load the Visual Studio environment in your default PowerShell profile. This is useful for debugging and developing.
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Quick tips for battling depression
While depression is a severe illness, you can fight back against it and win if you know what to do when it strikes. If your depression is brutal, however, it's vital to seek the advice of a physician. You might also find that depression is a symptom of a broader issue, such as undiagnosed Autism, or a serious illness that you can't control.
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The Diversity problem in Open-Source projects
The software industry has a diversity problem. Specifically that there isn't much diversity at all. We are also living in a time where we are hearing about project maintainers engaging in targeted harassment against minorities. This is a problem that we need to address. Why do we as a community have to deal with this, and how can we as maintainers help? Trying to fix a broken system is not a solution, but trying to make it better is the first step.
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Becoming an effective open source maintainer
Developing code is not easy. It is a challenge, but it is also a fun thing to do. Maintaining a project, however, is not easy either. It requires a very different skillset and time investment. When I became a maintainer of Selectize, I was able to learn a lot about the project and how to improve it, and I was able to learn so much about how to interact with the community.
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5 ways to reduce anxiety while waiting for big news
How do you handle the excruciating time as you wait for big news? Anxiety and stress are common factors during this waiting game. However, you can take steps to reduce your nervousness.
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How to learn online marketing at home
To become successful at online marketing, one must develop the necessary skills and knowledge to produce the best results.
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Redirecting pages in jekyll (Without Plugins)
Hosting your site on Github Pages is fantastic, easy and inexpensive. Using Jekyll to generate your pages is easy and very configurable. It's the perfect solution for a static site (as well as what I use for this blog). Sometimes, however, you may run into situations where you need to redirect a page to another page, and without access to your backend to use server-side redirects you need to do it manually.
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9 steps for building quality backlinks
For some, backlinks are the number one ranking factor for their websites. If you employ this strategy, building high-quality backlinks to your website can increase your search engine ranking, but it can also result in an increase in organic traffic.
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