Blog

$10 Showdown: Linode KVM vs. DigitalOcean

It's been nearly 2 years since my original $10 Showdown post. In that time both Linode and DigitalOcean have launched new datacenters and made other improvements to their infrastructures. One of the most notable improvements is Linode's migration from XEN [...]

Using an 11" MacBook Air for development

I do it, and I do it well. In fact, I've built an iOS game on it and used one exclusively without an external display while working at Sumo HQ in Austin, TX this past week. The 11" MacBook Air [...]

Intentional infinite loops

It's happened to all of us. A script just locks up and we're unsure why. At closer inspection we find that we're written a loop that has no terminating condition. It is an endless loop and in many cases consumes [...]

Pocket is Purgatory for articles

Read it later? More like read it never. It all started out innocently enough. I started to use Pocket to stash articles so I wouldn't be sidetracked while I was working. I would go back and catch up on the [...]

How to sync local files to Spotify mobile

One of the main reasons that I gave Apple Music a try recently was because I wanted to have some of my personal music collection available on my mobile devices. Turns out there is a way to coax similar functionality [...]

You're using Spotify wrong

I was at least, perhaps you're just better at this than me. Spotify has been my primary music consumption service since it launched in the United States in 2011. I have been a premium subscriber for nearly as long and [...]

Switching from Spotify to Apple Music and back again

Frustrated with recent playback issues with the Spotify desktop app, I engaged in a brief love affair with Apple Music. For me, Apple Music has a ton going for it. Out of the gate, the music selection seemed more robust [...]

Tracking peak users online with Redis

This probably isn't the best way to track things, but it's the best I came up with. Tracking the total number of users that log in per day or month is trivial as I have discussed in a previous post [...]

How to ride a bike without training wheels

Training wheels are an abomination and should be forced into extinction. I say this as someone that struggled to learn how to ride a bike because my parent's never took off my training wheels. Fortunately my neighborhood friends thought my [...]

The true cost of meetings

Meetings suck. It's a pretty universal sentiment across many companies and industries. "Meetings are toxic" is the war cry of the "Getting Real" generation. It's not just the time it takes to attend the meeting. It's the prep time. The [...]