Nov 21, 2022How to write beautiful, interactive Slack posts (Slack Block Kit)Have you ever wanted to convey information via Slack in a more visually appealing way? Slack makes it super simple to add emphasis to your messages in typical ways (bold, italics, underline, strikethrough, etc.), but fails to go beyond the basics, and doesn’t even implement the full range of formatting…Slack6 min readSlack6 min read
Mar 17, 2022Quantifying Happiness — by listing 3 positive things per daySeveral months back I read what quickly became one of my favourite books of all time, The Happiness Advantage, by Shawn Achor. The reason I loved it so much? It did something I didn’t think possible: it quantified happiness. Now, quantifying things is something my number-minded brain loves. I can’t…Happiness5 min readHappiness5 min read
Feb 23, 2022Migrating from GitLab to GitHubHaving recently undergone an acquisition, I was tasked with the fairly standard post-merger task of migrating our existing codebase over to the new parent company. Luckily for me, both sides used Git. Unluckily for me, one side used GitLab (us), and the other used GitHub (them). Now, given that both…Gitlab9 min readGitlab9 min read
Feb 23, 2022Migrating from MediaWiki to ConfluenceOne of the most valuable assets a software company holds, is its documentation. Although not as important as the code itself, documentation can enable handovers, assist support enquiries, and just generally make life simpler for anyone and everyone associated with the software. Whilst modern version control systems have popularised the…Mediawiki6 min readMediawiki6 min read
Jul 27, 2021The ONLY correct way to handle users changing their email addressLike many people who have been on the internet for more than 5 years, I have been burdened with an outdated email address for some time now. This is a common problem, whether it be something as embarrassing as an email ending “@aol.com”, or one of the equally common teenage-years…UX5 min readUX5 min read
Jan 25, 2021What is LeetCode, and why do I post solutions to it online?A few months back, I entered the crazy world of LeetCode. What is LeetCode For those of you who don’t know, LeetCode is a site that posts thousands of coding problems at varying difficulties, and asks you to solve them, whilst providing various test cases that your solution must pass. Additionally (and in…Leetcode5 min readLeetcode5 min read
Jan 16, 2021Sorting algorithms 101In the world of programming, there are many ways to sort data. For the average engineer, you might just use .sort(), perhaps with a slightly modified sorting function to return your data in a specific way. But that’s probably about the most you do. If however you’ve ever taken an…Sorting Algorithms5 min readSorting Algorithms5 min read
Jan 11, 2021LeetCode problem #39: Combination Sum (JavaScript)In this LeetCode problem, we’re given an array of numbers, and a target. Our job is to come up with every possible unique way to make that target by adding the numbers in the array. We can use the numbers multiple times, and the arrangement is considered unique if the…Leetcode3 min readLeetcode3 min read
Jan 7, 2021LeetCode problem #237: Delete node in a Linked List (JavaScript)In this LeetCode problem, we’re asked to delete a node from a Linked List. However, we aren’t given the Linked List’s head, and are instead provided with the node that needs to be deleted. To be honest, this question is a little too simple. Thanks to the question guaranteeing that…Leetcode1 min readLeetcode1 min read
Jan 7, 2021LeetCode problem #234: Palindrome Linked List (JavaScript)In this LeetCode problem, we’re given a Linked List, and asked to determine whether or not it (or rather, its values) represents a palindrome. Revision point 1: A linked list is a data structure that consists of two properties; next which points to the next node in the list, and…Leetcode2 min readLeetcode2 min read
