Using the GitHub GraphQL API in a serverless function - GraphQL vs REST
This isn't a guide, this is me documenting the how and why for a proof of concept project I worked on. So, I started playing around with the…
Windows Terminal Config - Make it Your Own
I've been using the Windows Terminal now since the summer, it's great and I now prefer it over Hyper which was my preferred terminal…
WSL Web Developer Bootstrap with Fedora 33
I have been having a blast playing around with configuring Fedora 33 in Windows via Windows Subsystem for Linux, I didn't know you could…
Fedora Remix for WSL GUI Apps
Fedora Remix for WSL was on sale for £2.51 so I thought I'd have a look see and add it to the rest of the other WSL distros I have…
Use Chrome in Ubuntu on Windows Subsystem Linux
This is a specific usecase for using Chrome in Ubuntu on WSL. On Ubuntu Snap is the preferred method to install Chromium and although snap…
Get GraphQL Data Using Axios
Ok this is a little snippet I've got set up to query data from the GitHub GraphQL API. I use this for getting data to work with in data…
Make a Simple API Endpoint with Vercel Serverless Functions
Create a simple Node API on Vercel Serverless functions in under 20 minutes. But first some preamble! A while back (3 years ago now!) I made…
Fish Shell Introduction
As a developer you spend a lot of time in the terminal so it's important to be happy and as productive as possible whilst you're in there…
WSL openSUSE for web dev
So I had a play around with the openSUSE Leap 15.2 you can get on the Windows store and after familiarising myself with it decided to see…
Enable GUIs on Windows Subsystem Linux (WSL)
So this post started off with me getting GUI apps running on my Windows WSL install of Pengwin , but has now turned into doing it without…
Notes on Zsh and Oh My Zsh
Sooooooo, so, so, so, Zsh is pretty neat, right? I've been a long time fan of the Fish shell, but I recently had to go full on with a Zsh…
Gatsby File System Route API with MDX
The Gatsby File System Route API was announced recently and I have been having a play around with it. If you're not familiar with it, it's…
Chakra UI and Gatsby - Getting Started
Ok, so this is another one of those "let's use a new CSS-in-JS library on a Gatsby default starter project" post. In this case it's Chakra…
Patching Gatsby React Router Scroll with patch-package
This is a very specific issue myself and anyone that uses Gatsby and React router for navigating between headers in their Gatsby sites. The…
Getting Started with Creating YouTube Videos
I started adding videos to my YouTube channel in November 2018, this was mainly intended as an accompaniment to the blog post I did to…
Markdown Showdown - All I Know About Markdown
Here it is kids! All I know about Markdown. First! The standard preamble... Before that though! Some of the possible titles I came up with…
How to Monetise Your Content With Coil and Brave BAT
I recently started monetising my blog, (don't worry there's no paywall!) this isn't a new thing as I originally did something similar with…
Windows Subsystem Linux Bootstrap 2020
Yo! It's that time again!! This is an opinionated guide on setting up a development environment for web development in widows that will use…
My Second Brain - Zettelkasten
For as long as I have been learning web development ( ) I have been taking notes. Partly notes to help clarify my understanding of something…
Switching to Manjaro from Ubuntu
I switched from Ubuntu to Manjaro Linux, here's how it went. So for a while now I've been using Ubuntu, from when my old Asus Transformer…
The COVID Chronicles - My Life In Lockdown
Unprecedented times, 2020 has been something else, and hopefully something none of us will have to live through again. I've decided to take…
My Top Ten Visual Studio Code Extensions 2020
My list of VSCode extensions I use in my daily development workflow. I'll detail the package name to search for in the VSCode extensions tab…
Logitech G815 Keyboard on Ubuntu - First Impressions
My beloved HAVIT KB395L keyboard left Ctrl key has started cutting out intermittently. As a developer all my coding revolves around that…
Theming With Linaria
This is a followup on the post I did about Getting Started with Linaria The starter I worked on last time I made into a template so it can…
Fathom Analytics Gatsby Configuration
Fathom Analytics, a great tool to use for your site analytics without the compromise of giving your visitors data to Google. I've written…
Full Screen Resolution With No Guest Additions in VirtualBox
Virtual Box Guest Additions can be a bit of a pain to set up sometimes. My current PC setup for some reason wouldn't show a VM in the full…
Linaria - Getting Started
I had a work colleague introduce me to Linaria last week and I've used it on a project and I quite like it. Linaria is like styled…
My First PC Build
I built my first PC, here's how it went and what I learned. Up until recently I was very happy with my home computer, which was an ASUS…
CSS Resources From Around the Web
This is a collection of some handy snippets and resources I collected which I'm going to be documenting here, it's probably going to be a…
Patching Packages with patch-package
I found an opportunity to improve the npm package for the Victor Mono font I like to use here and in my text editor (much to people horror…
Why Make a React SEO Component
Here's some of the reasoning and detail that went into making the React SEO Component . There wasn't a great deal I knew about Search…
CSS Variables Fallback
I used CSS variables to make a theme switch, light and dark, I've done this in the past using styled-components but not attempted it via…
Moving from Now to Netlify then back to Now
I am a massive fan of both Vercel's Now.sh platform and the Netlify platform. This post has been in my drafts since the beginning of…
Moving Large Markdown Assets to a CDN
I've spent a while today trying to bring down the size of this project, I have several posts that are particularly large so I wanted to work…
Open Graph Images with Gatsby and Now
I recently purged all the cover images from this site to reduce the overall size of the project, plus they don't really add to the content…
A Digital Garden
I spent a couple of days now questioning how and what I write after reading a post from Richard Haines . In his post he mentioned how he…
Continuous Deployments on Non Essential Projects
Quite a while ago now I was introduced to dependency update tools like Renovate and Greenkeeper, at the time I thought they were awesome…
Configure Custom Domain Email with Zoho and Now
In this guide I'm going to cover the configuring of your custom domain with Vercel's Now platform using the Now CLI. I'll be primarily…
Make a simple, personal, URL shortener with Now.sh
Remember services like Bitly and TinyURL ? Yeah, they still exist, shortening your URLs for you, they've been around for a long time too…
Add Analytics Tracking Links to your Markdown
I'm talking Fathom Analytics again, this time about tracking link clicks in my Markdown. I have written about how to track custom events…
Create a Custom Domain for Fathom Analytics
Fathom Analytics recently added a really neat feature for custom domains with their service. What does that mean then? Well it's for…
Add a Table of Contents with Smooth scroll using Gatsby and MDX
If you're having issues with the clicks not scrolling to link IDs see Not scrolling to ID The main purpose for me documenting this is to…
Globally Style the Gatsby Default Starter with styled-components v5
I'm going to go over globally styling the Gatsby Default Starter with styled-components v5, I've done this in the past with styled…
Upgrade Windows Subsystem Linux - Ubuntu 18.04 to Ubuntu 19.10
In this guide I'm going to detail upgrading a Windows Subsystem Linux (WSL) Ubuntu install from the current version 18.04 to 19.10 this is…
Track Custom Events With Fathom Analytics
In this guide I'm going to go through how to track custom events in a Gatsby site using Fathom analytics. Preamble At the end of last month…
React Advanced - London 2019
React Advanced London going deep! Here's my recollection of my attendance at React Advanced London 2019 supported with videos from the event…
Build a coding blog from scratch with Gatsby and MDX
I have been a Gatsby user since around v0 May 2017 , at that time was using a template called Lumen and it was just what I needed at the…
JAMstack_conf London 2019
I've been wanting to go to a JAMstack conf since the first one was scheduled for October 2018. This year when it was announced there would…
Convert the Gatsby default starter blog to use MDX
In this guide we're going to cover converting the Gatsby default blog starter to use MDX. All the cool kids are using Gatsby and MDX in…
Update Windows Subsystem Linux Ubuntu from 18.04 to 18.10
Already use WSL with Ubuntu? Want an Upgrade?? This is a guide that will cover upgrading Windows Subsystem Linux (WSL) from the current LTS…
Creating a Custom React Hook for Gatsby Site Metadata
Hooks ahoy! Ok, let's get it on with the new hotness in Reactland, React Hooks! This is a guide covering using the Gatsby custom React hook…
Testing MDX
Moving to the new hotness!! I've now moved this blog over to Gatsby MDX. You can see all the changes on my repo here . From the pull I'm…
Setting up multiple Git providers
Over the past couple of weeks now I have set up several development machines at work and have had to also use two git accounts, GitHib and…
Windows Web-dev bootstrap
From scratch to Create React App on Windows An opinionated guide on setting up a web development environment on Windows 10 I have been a…
Turning a job hunt into a dev project
Cliffs/TL;DR I made a recruiter FAQ on my personal site for recruiters and created an online CV . Preamble Apologies up front about this…
Convert the Gatsby default starter to styled-components
Let's go through getting styled-components working with the Gatsby default starter. In this example we're going to use the Gatsby default…
Get your GraphCMS data into Gatsby
Let's set up Gatsby to pull data from GraphCMS. This will be a walk-through of setting up some basic data on the headless CMS, GraphCMS and…
Using the React Context API - getting started
Let's use the React Context API to change theme in an app! But first, some context ! 🤣 Ok terrible puns aside let's have a look at what…
Making a CI pipeline with Travis CI
I thought I'd set up this blog with some sort of build pipeline, the intention was to have a good Continuous Integration pipeline so that if…
Use the React Context API with Gatsby
I'm a bit late to the party using the new React Context API , I did get to use it the other day at work, I also made a snippet to…
styled-components 💅 getting started
We're going to style the basic create react app with styled-components to look something like this: But first, preamble✨: I have always…
How to make time for 100 days of code
Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. — Ferris Bueller. I'm going to go over steps I…
Windows Subsystem Linux setup
I'm a Windows user, I have been a Linux user as well but I have found that Windows is a bit less neckbeardy for me, both have their pros…
Git ` — allow-unrelated-histories`
How to combine two separate unrelated Git repositories into one with single history timeline. Just adding a quick note on this… I had a…
Moving from beginner to [slightly more] advanced git with aliases.
Speed up your git workflow with git aliases, this is a brief introduction on using aliases 🚀👍 The more you work with Git the more familiar…
Just starting out with Git and GitHub? It gets easier, honest!
No doubt you have heard of Git or GitHub for source control, but what is source control? “Revision control (also known as version control…
Twitter bot playground
How to build and deploy a multifunctional Twitter bot! This is a reference for me and anyone else that's interested in Twitter bots in…
Code life balance
Just some rationalisation of what I'm currently doing. Recently I have decided that I'm going to improve my current skill set. To do this I…
Easily set up your own Twitter bot
Want to get set up with your very own Twitter bot quickly and easily, with this guide you can be set up in under 30 minutes. But first, why…
Git and GitHub
I know why Linus called it that now! If you're reading this there's a good chance you know at least the basics of Git but if like me and you…
Twitter McTwitBot
I must say this was great to do and a nice little introduction to node and npm. I got to doing this from finding it on GitHub I think I…
Starting again with Jekyll
Since setting up this blog I haven't really bothered with Jekyll any more than just forking Barry Clarke's repo of Jekyll Now and adding…
Job hunting, one class 'A' ballache
This is basically a rant about the job market, I was laid off back in August, this is a terrible time of year to be looking for work…
My first Microsoft Visual Studio Code [VSCode] extension
I'm a published developer! sort of Well that was a bit painful, well not actually I mean from the documentation I feel I was a bit mislead…
VBA Code Export for Version Control Systems
I have seen the same situation many times now in my career as a VBA Developer about how source code control is managed with VBA projects…
freeCodeCamp
Ok, I have recently discovered and started doing freeCodeCamp(🔥) which so far I'm really enjoying. Since being out of work I have had some…
Hello World!
My first post using Gatsby, awesome static site generator Gatsby from Kyle Mathews So not a lot to see, I'll just be configuring this and…