-
MNT Reform 2 DIY Kit Review
The MNT Reform 2 laptop was made available on Crowd Supply in June 2020. This review is for the DIY kit version, and I’ll focus on the experience of supporting this project and its vendor through crowdsourcing, the process of putting the machine together, and my first impressions. I plan to share a second post with my thoughts on…
-
Ruby On Rails: Storing JSON Directly in PostgreSQL
Whenever we save data from one of our Rails models, each attribute is mapped one to one to a field in the database. These fields are generally of a simple type, like a string or an integer. However, it’s also possible to save an entire data object in JSON format in a field. Let’s see…
-
Using a Hackathon to Stress Test Your Development Process
A hackathon’s value proposition is generally one of innovation. Companies see these events as an investment to come up with new products. However, I recently found out they are also a great way to teach us about existing flaws in our software development processes. I’ve participated in a handful of coding events before and have come to…
-
ActiveRecord Except
August 19th was Whyday, and to commemorate it, I decided to write a gem called activerecord-except. WHAT IS IT? activerecord-except is a Ruby gem that extends the functionality of ActiveRecord, allowing you to select all the fields from a table, except the ones that you specify. For example, if you have a table users. And you want…
-
Vortex Core Mechanical Keyboard Review
I got myself a new keyboard for my birthday, the Vortex Core. I wanted a mechanical keyboard that I could take everywhere with me. Being a 40% keyboard, I expected it to over deliver on the portable side, what I didn’t expect, is that I’d enjoy using this tiny keyboard so much, even for extended periods…