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All 31 Things I've Written Down

Learnings I'll find when I try to do them again.

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Choosing Between Controllers and Minimal API for .NET APIs

.NET now offers several methods for creating APIs. Let's cover the pros & cons of building with Controllers, Minimal API, and more.

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Alias any Type with C# 12

With C# 12, you can now alias type, including tuples, array, pointer, and unsafe types.

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Using Primary Constructors in C# 12 & .NET 8

C# 12 provides a new way to use constructors that can potentially save you time, but there are several things to watch out for.

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Integrating a Notion Database with an Astro Site

My entire life is planned & documented in Notion. How can I pull that content into my Astro site so I don't have to duplicate it in content collections?

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How to Email Phone Call Transcripts with Twilio Studio and Pipedream

Learn how to build a workflow that allows people to call & leave a message that will automatically be transcribed and emailed, using Twilio Studio, Pipedream, and Deepgram.

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Try Whisper: OpenAI's Speech Recognition Model in 1 Minute

Deepgram has made testing OpenAI's new open-sourced Whisper speech recognition model easy as copy and paste.

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Creating Short URLs with Netlify Functions and FaunaDb

Personalized short URLs are cool. So I decided to see if I could use a serverless function to do it for me.

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Making a Man: Lessons Learned from My Single Mother

Remembering the integrity and tenacity my mom displayed in her life and the lessons she worked to instill in me.

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Updating Notion Cover Images with Pipedream and JavaScript

Using JavaScript and Pipedream to automate changing my Notion cover image each night.

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Building 404 Pages That Bring Joy

How we transformed the bad experience of landing on a 404 page into an enjoyable experience with a game.

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Building a Cross Platform NuGet Package

Learning to build a NuGet package by building a .NET SDK for the Deepgram API, while ensuring it's compatible with as many versions of the .NET Framework and as many platforms as possible.

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Building a Discord Bot to Improve Inclusive Language

Building a Discord bot sounds like a fun and I couldn't think of a better first project than trying to make it a safer space for everyone.

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Using Polywork to Break My Unconscious Biases

Polywork is an interesting new LinkedIn competitor. After joining, I wanted to ensure that my "bubble" included a diverse set of people. Here's how I did it.

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10 VS Code Extensions You Need Today

Let's talk about ten Visual Studio Code extensions that every developer, regardless of language or platform, can benefit from using today.

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Choosing Between Blazor Server or WebAssembly

Building for the web using a language you're already comfortable with? Sounds like a great idea as long as it's easy to use and performs well for clients.

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Building my Ultimate Rustic Developers Desk

I've always wanted to build a desk that fits me. So welcome to my journey to build my ultimate developer desk.

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Live-Coding to Learn, Share and Encourage

A reflection on one year of coding live on Twitch to learn new technologies, share what I know, and encourage others to grow personally & professionally.

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Using Apollo to Query GraphQL from Node.js

It's a common scenario—you built a quick prototype, it worked great, and now management wants it live yesterday. GraphQL can help get it out the door.

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I See What You're Saying: Sentiment Analysis With OpenTok and Azure Face API

Building a multi-party video conference that allows us to analyze the sentiment of each participant based on their facial expression.

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Using AutoMapper with ASP.NET Core 3

AutoMappers usage via dependency injection changed in ASP.NET Core 3. This post shows how to use the new implementation.

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Adding HATEOAS to an ASP.NET Core API

RESTful APIs provide a great way to make our APIs easier for users to consume. How can we make discovering endpoints and capabilities easier?

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Using Azure File Storage as Container Volume Mounts in App Services

How to mount Azure File Storage as a persistent volume in your multi-container App Services.

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Environment Variables in Azure Functions with Key Vault

Using environment variables from Azure Key Vault is a little different for Functions than Web Applications. Here's how to get it working.

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Using SQL Server in Docker containers for basic tasks

Don't want to install SQL instances on your personal or work machine? No problem, because you no longer need to. Let's learn how to spin up a Docker container and access it with SQL Management Studio.

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Using a Code of Conduct and Contributing Guidelines in Public Repositories

Want people to contribute to your repositories? Then you need to make sure they know they're welcome and provide them with a clear path to get started.

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Adding command aliases to Powershell

How much time could you save by shortening common commands and parameters using PowerShell aliases? The answer is a lot.

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Current Twitch live-coding stream setup

I've started working a lot more at trying to get my setup just right so I could live code some personal projects and hopefully help others learn new technologies.

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Communication between containers using docker compose in Windows

In production, our application on a Pi communicates with a Restful API that lives at our clients main office. However, while debugging we need to run them side-by-side. So, docker-compose to the rescue (I think.)

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Setting up Raspberry Pi for use in kiosk mode with Chromium

Recently one of our clients approached us to develop an application that would run on a Raspberry Pi to use in kiosk's throughout their facilities. We ended up writing a web app in Angular that they would run via Chromium.

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Automating release notes with GitHub, AppVeyor and Octopus Deploy

With multiple clients, projects, deadlines, release schedules running at once, it's hard to keep up with what features are being released in a build.

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Girls Who Code

These days, the topic of women in technology is hot. As a dad of two daughters, I often think about what their futures hold. One thing I know, they belong here as much as any man.