Cloud
This month I have sat and passed the AWS Solution Architect Associate exam. Like with many things, the journey is more exciting than the destination. In this article, I share lessons and observations I made along the way.
Tech
Beneath the user interface of our applications, we as developers both define and use default values in code and configuration. Choosing carefully helps make what we build quicker, easier, and less error-prone to use.
Tech
Perspective is a streaming pivot visualization engine which uses WebAssembly. This blog post explores its capabilities and creates a custom cryptocurrency visualisation using d3fc.
People
Scott Logic is a leading software consultancy company who offer three graduate schemes, one for development, testing, and user experience (UX). In this article I will give a personal account of the start of my graduate programme as a developer, along with inputs from my fellow starters. If you’re thinking about joining Scott Logic, want to find out more about their graduate scheme, or who they are, then this article is for you.
UX Design
Article provides an overview of trends in UX from the UX Poland 2018 conference, that arguably will be an important part of the UX Design industry in the coming months and years. Topics include promoting honesty with simplicity in our design, cross-app integrations, and the rise of progressive web apps as the future of mobile experiences.
Delivery
There are differences in technical ability across any development team. In this post I look at how those differences can result in substandard code getting into your releases, and some steps to take to avoid that happening.
Open Source
Here's why I spend so much of my time—including evenings and weekends—on GitHub, as an active member of the open source community.
Artificial Intelligence
Recently I've been doing a bit of research on machine learning and particularly TensorFlow and Keras. This blog provides a brief introduction to the tech, and then a simple tutorial using both TensorFlow and Keras, exploring the differences between the two.
Tech
This post explores some of the ideas and technology features behind Docker and Kubernetes. We delve into deploying a simple Java application on the Google Cloud Platform using a managed Kubernetes Cluster.
Cloud
You may have heard of "Infrastructure as Code" - but have you heard of "Infrastructure as Code as a Service"? We wanted to reliably and routinely set up hardware on demand as and when we needed it; this was our approach.
Tech
Developing with Redux makes managing your React state easier, but if not integrated correctly it can remove key advantages of using React, wrecking your application's performance. This blog will outline how I managed to create a painfully slow React app and the steps took to correct it.
People
A common misconception is that accessibility is for users that are deemed ‘disabled’ in modern society. This blog explores what 'accessibility' really is and how we can develop with it in mind.
Cloud
In this post, I look at how WebAssembly can be used to create serverless functions and demonstrate an AWS Lambda function written entirely in Rust.
Cloud
Cloud Custodian is an open source project from Capital One. It allows you to enforce your cloud compliance rules in an automated way. One key use case of Custodian is to reduce costs by shutting down unused resources. In this post, I'll walk through setting up a Custodian and writing a policy. This will shut down EC2 instances outside working hours to save money.
People
For our 12-week summer internship, Paulius Pocius and I were tasked with making the foyer screen responsive and customisable, with a view to eventually having it installed locally on all office desktops.
Cloud
The popularity of Infrastructure as Code has skyrocketed in the last few years. Such tools allow the rapid and reliable provisioning of resources straight to the cloud, saving huge amounts of time and effort in the long run. One of the most prominent of these tools is Terraform, which this post will focus on, particularly with regards to AWS.
Delivery
The habit of setting a release date for a project is often an obstacle to the success of said project. Focusing on delivering quickly and often usually makes more sense from a commercial and from a technical perspectives.
Testing
It's been a busy year for the Scott Logic testing team since we last visited the Software Testing Conference North. This year offered the opportunity to catch up with other members of the testing community, and to hear how companies are tackling their testing challenges.
Tech
When it comes to creating complex bespoke charts, of all the JavaScript visualisation / charting frameworks, D3 is the clear winner. This blog post takes a step-by-step look at the process of of building an ‘advanced’ financial charting using D3, with additional components from d3fc.
Testing
Testers are called on to give advice as part of their role. How can do we do that in a way that is in the best interest of our team and product without our natural bias getting in the way? Leveraging the concept of the trusted adviser is one solution to this.