DEV Community: Arcade

Abstraction feels sometimes it does more harm than good.

Arcade — Wed, 21 May 2025 09:44:56 +0000

Though I am quite far into my development career, a long cry away from when I first posted here a long time ago. I still struggle to understand new tools and fundamental concepts because the time between being told about a new tool or feature, e.g., Grafana, and the time to implement is very short. Usually, as there is an underlying assumption of knowledge from the wider team, or also people don't know much about the tool, but utilise abstraction to implement it as best as they know how. This leaves me feeling quite slow or feeling a bit stupid. Does anyone else feel this way?

How do you manage Docker secrets?

Arcade — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 12:53:00 +0000

There seem to be a lot of posts about how to use and deploy docker but not much about how to connect many of the linking parts?

I.e how to pull environment variables from docker secrets to use inside a container.

Also if creating a containerised API, for deployment on a server, how do you build the API locally to interact with a db elsewhere that you only have access to remotely?

Is using Jekyll for your portfolio cheating?

Arcade — Sat, 02 Jan 2021 19:34:19 +0000

Jekyll is highly regarded amongst the developer community for creating sleeky, minimalist and easy to navigate websites. It's widely used in conjunction with Github pages and most of the basic themes are included as an option when you create a repository.

I've previously set up a minimal portfolio website using Jekyll before. Part of me feels as though the portfolio should show your talents and creating it purely from HTML/CSS or even using a React of Django framework speaks to this more than using Jekyll. In the midst of changing up my portfolio and blog, I would like to ask the question - Is using Jekyll to create your online developer website "cheating" so to speak?
Or is it just as good of a medium for showcasing your skills and projects?

I guess this question also needs to take into question the purpose of the portfolio/blog. For instance, is the same level of development needed for someone showcasing their talents as a DevOps Engineer vs a Frontend or Full stack developer?

2021 - let's get technical

Arcade — Fri, 01 Jan 2021 19:55:36 +0000

2020 was an astonishing year for the world, economically, socially and also in the realms of tech. With all the happened in the world, I wish I had documented more, written more and learned more. No one could have predicted the events of last year but the social changes cause by the ongoing pandemic catapulted our collective reliance on technology driven by a need to engage with one another. There were more developments in tech, more to read and talk about.

This year of 2021, I have been fortunate enough to gain a new role as an Analyst programmer. In 2019 I could not have imagined coming this far as a self taught developer and my biggest regret is not documenting more of the journey learning to help myself and others. Whilst I am not very familiar with technical blogging or the DEV website itself, the goal for 2021 is write, document, code.

What are everyone else's goals? Anyone eager to get stuck in with Technical writing for 2021?

I finished the Into to Programming Udacity Nanodegree in one month.

Arcade — Sat, 13 Jun 2020 13:54:51 +0000

Udacity are currently offering free access to their Nanodegree's for a month. In the month of May (as part of my 100 days of coding challenge) I managed to complete this a receive certification! If anyone is interested in taking on this challenge, please feel free to have a read of my in-depth review of their 'Introduction to Programming' Nanodegree here!