21 posts tagged with "development"

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.

As a developer, you may want to load the Visual Studio environment in your default PowerShell profile. This is useful for debugging and developing.

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.

When configuring a development environment, you can use the PowerShell command to display all environment variables. This can be useful for gathering information about the environment, or for debugging.

Oops! That was a mistake​

Sometimes you accidentally add a file to your repository that you don't want. It happens to all of us. Usually, it's not that big of a deal, but it can be a problem when you commit something dangerous, such as API keys, passwords, or other sensitive information.

While it is sometimes easy to determine what app is using a port, it is not always the case. For example, if you are running a web app, and you want to know what app is using port 80, you can't just look at the process list. You have to run a script to find the culprit. In the past this was a netstat command, but it can be simpler to use PowerShell.

It's the tiny details that show you care​

Although it isn't technically required for compliance, it's a great idea to ensure your visitors that rely on alternate descriptions have a good experience.

Nobody reaches their full potential alone; which is why having a career mentor is so incredibly important. Today, I'm going to talk about the other side and reveal how rewarding it can be to share your experience with future generations.

Organizations that leverage social media to amplify their voices may find that they missed a crucial step. Often, people will not speak up, if we don't let them. Let's discuss how we can be sure to include diverse points of view.

How to be a happy developer is a question we get asked a lot. We’re often asked, what do we feel, is the best way to become a better developer. I want to share my thoughts and experience of getting to where I am today with anyone who is willing to listen. Making the right choices can open up whole new worlds of opportunities and happiness for you and your family.

Being a happy developer means being able to worry less about the big things. It means not worrying about an immediate paycheck, but thinking about the long-term impact of your work on people in the future.

How to keep your WSL instance up to date​

If you are like me, you prefer to always keep your packages as up-to-date as possible. You also like to automate things when possible to avoid repetitive admin tasks.

This script will call your default WSL instance [^1], and update/upgrade all packages.

Eight tips for becoming more productive as a developer​

10 months ago I transitioned to full-time remote work. First to help my medically fragile son, and then again for Covid-19 lockdown. This is a list of things that have helped me cope, and still have a good work-life balance.

What to do when you no longer love your work​

Burnout is a common, yet serious, mental health issue that plagues the dev industry. Devs often feel stuck working long hard hours with little reward or reprieve.

It can manifest as mental or physical stress and can be debilitating if not dealt with.

What do you do when you finish a tutorial​

So you've finally got around to watching that YouTube video or Udemy course? If you are like me, you need to apply the knowledge that you've learned as soon as you can, or you'll lose everything. Here are few things you can do to keep things fresh.

How to clear your NuGet caches​

NuGet caches downloaded packages to avoid lengthy update times. Sometimes, however, restoring packages (such as a CI server) can become problematic. Below is an easy method of clearing your cache to help debug restore issues.

Publishing a page is easy, but ensuring that you have quality content is not. How do you make sure that you balance your content so that it is easily consumable by your readers, as well as making your content easy to find by search engines? This guide will provide a few basic elements that you can review to make sure your articles have the highest possible impact and reach.