5 | Hey there! It looks like you hit an old link and I probably took it down. 6 | Click here to head back to the home page 7 |
8 |I invite you to head over to Developer Fusion, and read my article on "Enhancing Your Applications For Windows 7”. If you haven’t played with the Windows 7 API Code Pack yet, I definitely recommend it.
https://www.developerfusion.com/article/70531/enhancing-your-applications-for-windows-7/
16 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /license: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Copyright 2019 Andre Madarang 2 | 3 | Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: 4 | 5 | The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. 6 | 7 | THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. 8 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /blog/20200506-the-dev-talk-show-recap-and-resources.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | --- 2 | title: "The Dev Talk Show Recap and Resources" 3 | date: 2020-05-07T00:30:00Z 4 | permalink: thedevtalkshow 5 | description: "Resources and replay from The Dev Talk Show episode covering Logic Apps and Azure development." 6 | summary: "Thanks for attending The Dev Talk Show! Here are the resources and replay from our discussion about Logic Apps and Azure development." 7 | tags: 8 | - Dev Talk Show 9 | - Logic Apps 10 | - Azure 11 | - Microsoft 12 | categories: 13 | - Misc 14 | --- 15 | 16 | Thanks for attending The Dev Talk Show! If you missed the episode, catch the replay at: 17 | 18 | `youtube:https://www.youtube.com/embed/emuUvQfJpeU` 19 | 20 | # Links to Resources 21 | 22 | [Logic Apps on Azure](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/logic-apps/?WT.mc_id=DOP-MVP-4029061) 23 | [Custom Connector in Azure Logic Apps](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/custom-connectors/create-logic-apps-connector?WT.mc_id=DOP-MVP-4029061) 24 | [The Dev Talk Show](https://thedevtalkshow.com/) 25 | 26 | 27 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /blog/20090421-wildcard-search-with-linq.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | --- 2 | title: "Wildcard search with LINQ" 3 | date: 2009-04-21T09:17:26Z 4 | permalink: wildcard-search-with-linq 5 | description: "Learn how to perform wildcard searches using LINQ to Entities with the Contains() method as an alternative to SQL LIKE operations." 6 | summary: "An example of wildcard search with LINQ" 7 | tags: 8 | - LINQ 9 | - C# 10 | - Entity Framework 11 | - Database 12 | categories: 13 | - "Development - C#" 14 | --- 15 | 16 | I just a situation where I needed to perform a wildcard search on a table in my database. When I used to do ADO.NET, I would simply write my SELECT statements with LIKE keywords to do wildcard searches. 17 | 18 | However, in this project, I'm using LINQ to Entities and the solution didn't work the same way as it did back in SQL land. My alternative was to use the .Contains() method. 19 | 20 | For example: 21 | 22 | ```csharp 23 | var userList = from u in entity.Users 24 | where u.FirstName.Contains(searchParameter) || 25 | u.LastName.Contains(searchParameter) 26 | select u; 27 | ``` 28 | 29 | Hope this helps if you ever run into this problem. 30 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /blog/20140902-one-simple-rule-for-successful-consulting.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | --- 2 | title: "One Simple Rule for Successful Consulting" 3 | date: 2014-09-03T00:16:57Z 4 | permalink: one-simple-rule-for-successful-consulting 5 | description: "Discover the one simple rule that can make your consulting more successful: always recommend solutions you would use for your own business." 6 | summary: "When I recommend tools, technologies, and other solutions to my clients, I want to always make sure that the suggestion I am providing is something I would do for my own business" 7 | tags: 8 | - "consulting" 9 | - "business advice" 10 | - "client relationships" 11 | - "professional ethics" 12 | categories: 13 | - Business 14 | --- 15 | 16 | When you're suggesting business decisions for a client, think about it this way: 17 | 18 | > If you were to flip the roles, would you take the advice you are offering? 19 | 20 | Simply put: when I recommend tools, technologies, and other solutions to my clients, I want to always make sure that the suggestion I am providing is something I would do for my own business. 21 | 22 | Do that, and the clients will always keep coming back. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /blog/20091201-learn-about-windows-7-task-dialogs.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | --- 2 | title: "Learn about Windows 7 Task Dialogs" 3 | date: 2009-12-01T07:00:00Z 4 | permalink: learn-about-windows-7-task-dialogs 5 | description: "Explore Windows 7 Task Dialogs - the next evolution of message boxes with enhanced UI capabilities and better user experience." 6 | summary: "Back in 2009, I wrote an article on building task dialogs in Windows 7" 7 | tags: 8 | - Windows 7 9 | - UI 10 | - Task Dialogs 11 | - Development 12 | categories: 13 | - Development 14 | --- 15 | 16 |Please take a few minutes and travel over to DeveloperFusion where my latest article on Windows 7 Task Dialogs has been published. If you’ve never used a task dialog before, I would definitely recommend them. I consider them “Message Box 2.0”.
Let me know what you think!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /src/components/PaginationPosts.vue: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | 2 |After giving a talk, it’s really difficult to judge if you reached any of the attendee’s. Normally, you get the occasional “good job” or “thanks, that was a big help.” Today I got a small mention by Johnathan Bracken, who was sitting in my jQuery From The Ground Up talk at Roanoke Code Camp. This means a lot, because it shows that my talk stayed in Johnathan’s head past the end of the talk.
He just started blogging, and mentioned me in his entry I Will Not Run from JavaScript No More (since removed). This is very cool to see. I wish Johnathan the best of luck in his jQuery adventures! And I expect him to give a jQuery talk at next year’s code camp.
16 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /src/pages/Contact.vue: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | 2 |7 | I know how it goes. You're cruising around the internet, find this 8 | awesome dude Kevin, and you want to reach out to him... err, me. 9 |
10 |There are a couple ways:
11 | 12 |14 | One of the quickest ways to reach out is to send me a direct message on 15 | Twitter. I can be contacted at 16 | @1kevgriff. 17 |
18 |20 | A solid fallback is to 21 | email me. 22 |
23 |C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V110\Microsoft.Cpp.Platform.targets(35,5): error MSB8020: The builds tools for Visual Studio 2010 (Platform Toolset = 'v100') cannot be found. To build using the v100 build tools, either click the Project menu or right-click the solution, and then select "Update VC++ Projects...". Install Visual Studio 2010 to build using the Visual Studio 2010 build tools.19 | Normally you'll get this if you're only running VS2012 and it wants VS2010/VS2008. You can ask NPM to use Visual Studio 2012 instead by using with "--msvs_version=2012" command. 20 | 21 | Example: 22 | 23 |
npm install socket.io --msvs_version=201224 | Tada. This should work almost every time. 25 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /blog/20201013-how-to-upgrade-net-cli-templates.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | --- 2 | title: "How to Upgrade .NET CLI Templates" 3 | date: 2020-10-14T00:00:00Z 4 | permalink: how-to-upgrade-dotnet-cli-templates 5 | description: "Learn how to check for and apply updates to your .NET CLI templates using simple dotnet commands introduced in .NET Core 3.0." 6 | summary: "How do you update the .NET CLI templates? Turns out there is a command just for you!" 7 | tags: 8 | - .NET CLI 9 | - Templates 10 | - dotnet 11 | - .NET Core 12 | - Updates 13 | - Command Line 14 | categories: 15 | - .NET 16 | --- 17 | 18 | I saw an awesome tweet on Twitter today: 19 | 20 | https://twitter.com/buhakmeh/status/1316360387886014464 21 | 22 | Turns out, if you've upgraded to .NET Core 3.0, there is a special command just for this! Head over to the [.NET Core Docs](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/tools/dotnet-new?WT.mc_id=DOP-MVP-4029061) and look for these two options at the bottom: 23 | 24 | ### Checking for Updates 25 | 26 | ```powershell 27 | dotnet new --update-check 28 | ``` 29 | 30 | > Checks if there are updates available for the template packs that are currently installed. Available since .NET Core 3.0 SDK. 31 | 32 | ### Applying Updates 33 | 34 | ```powershell 35 | dotnet new --update-apply 36 | ``` 37 | 38 | > Checks if there are updates available for the template packs that are currently installed and installs them. Available since .NET Core 3.0 SDK. 39 | 40 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /src/main.js: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | // This is the main.js file. Import global CSS and scripts here. 2 | // The Client API can be used here. Learn more: gridsome.org/docs/client-api 3 | 4 | import DefaultLayout from '~/layouts/Default.vue' 5 | import VueScrollTo from 'vue-scrollto'; 6 | import VueFuse from 'vue-fuse'; 7 | import VueDisqus from 'vue-disqus'; 8 | 9 | import { FontAwesomeIcon } from '@fortawesome/vue-fontawesome'; 10 | import { config, library } from '@fortawesome/fontawesome-svg-core'; 11 | import { faSearch, faStar } from '@fortawesome/free-solid-svg-icons' 12 | import '@fortawesome/fontawesome-svg-core/styles.css'; 13 | 14 | config.autoAddCss = false; 15 | library.add(faSearch, faStar); 16 | 17 | export default function (Vue, { router, head, isClient }) { 18 | // Set default layout as a global component 19 | Vue.component('Layout', DefaultLayout); 20 | Vue.component('font-awesome', FontAwesomeIcon); 21 | 22 | Vue.use(VueScrollTo, { 23 | duration: 500, 24 | easing: "ease", 25 | }); 26 | 27 | Vue.use(VueFuse); 28 | Vue.use(VueDisqus); 29 | 30 | head.meta.push({ 31 | name: 'keywords', 32 | content: 'Gridsome,Vue,Tailwind,Tailwind CSS,JavaScript,HTML,CSS,Vue.js,VueJS,.NET,ASP.NET,ASP.NET Core,.NET Core,Microsoft Azure,Azure' 33 | }); 34 | 35 | head.meta.push({ 36 | name: 'author', 37 | content: 'Kevin W. Griffin' 38 | }); 39 | 40 | head.link.push({ 41 | rel: 'stylesheet', 42 | href: 'https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Nunito+Sans:400,700&display=swap' 43 | }); 44 | } 45 | 46 | 47 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /blog/20121112-my-default-gitignore-file.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | --- 2 | title: "My Default .gitignore File" 3 | date: 2012-11-12T10:37:23Z 4 | permalink: base-gitignore 5 | description: "A comprehensive .gitignore file template for Visual Studio projects and common development artifacts." 6 | summary: "A comprehensive .gitignore file template for Visual Studio projects and common development artifacts." 7 | tags: 8 | - Git 9 | - Visual Studio 10 | - Development 11 | - Version Control 12 | categories: 13 | - Development 14 | --- 15 | 16 | Every time I create a new Git repo, I always have to go look for a previous copy of my .gitignore file. I thought it would be a great idea to just post it up for all to find, in case they were looking for it. This particular file is built around Visual Studio projects. 17 | 18 | ```markdown 19 | # Ignore file for Visual Studio 20 | 21 | # use glob syntax 22 | syntax: glob 23 | 24 | # Ignore Config files with keys and passwords 25 | #ServiceConfiguration*.cscfg 26 | #Web*.config 27 | #App*.config 28 | 29 | # Ignore Visual Studio files 30 | *.obj 31 | #*.exe 32 | #*.pdb 33 | *.user 34 | *.aps 35 | *.pch 36 | *.vspscc 37 | *.vshost.* 38 | *_i.c 39 | *_p.c 40 | *.ncb 41 | *.suo 42 | *.tlb 43 | *.tlh 44 | *.bak 45 | *.cache 46 | *.ilk 47 | *.log 48 | *.lib 49 | *.sbr 50 | *.scc 51 | *.orig 52 | UpgradeLog*.* 53 | UpgradeReport*.* 54 | [Bb]in 55 | [Dd]ebug*/ 56 | obj/ 57 | [Rr]elease*/ 58 | _ReSharper*/ 59 | [Tt]est[Rr]esult* 60 | [Bb]uild[Ll]og.* 61 | *.[Pp]ublish.xml 62 | glob:*.vs10x 63 | *.ReSharper 64 | [Pp]ublish 65 | [Rr]eleaseFiles 66 | [Cc]sx/ 67 | [Bb]ackup1/ 68 | [Pp]ackages/ 69 | 70 | # Mac Files 71 | .DS_Store 72 | *.DS_Store 73 | ._* 74 | ``` -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /package.json: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | { 2 | "name": "kevgriffin.v4", 3 | "private": true, 4 | "scripts": { 5 | "build": "NODE_OPTIONS=--openssl-legacy-provider gridsome build", 6 | "develop": "NODE_OPTIONS=--openssl-legacy-provider gridsome develop", 7 | "explore": "gridsome explore", 8 | "docker:build": "docker build -t kevgriffin.v4:latest .", 9 | "docker:develop": "docker run -p 8080:8080 -v ${PWD}/blog:/usr/src/app/blog kevgriffin.v4:latest", 10 | "create-post": "node scripts/create-post.js" 11 | }, 12 | "dependencies": { 13 | "@gridsome/plugin-google-analytics": "^0.1.2", 14 | "@gridsome/plugin-sitemap": "^0.4.0", 15 | "@gridsome/source-filesystem": "^0.6.2", 16 | "@gridsome/transformer-remark": "^0.6.4", 17 | "@gridsome/vue-remark": "^0.2.6", 18 | "@noxify/gridsome-plugin-remark-embed": "^1.3.1", 19 | "autoprefixer": "^10.0.0", 20 | "axios": "^1.0.0", 21 | "gridsome": "^0.7.23", 22 | "gridsome-plugin-gtag": "^0.1.10", 23 | "gridsome-plugin-remark-shiki": "^0.6.0", 24 | "gridsome-plugin-remark-twitter": "^0.2.1", 25 | "gridsome-plugin-remark-youtube": "^1.0.1", 26 | "gridsome-plugin-rss": "^1.2.0", 27 | "lodash.pick": "^4.4.0", 28 | "postcss": "^8.0.0", 29 | "tailwindcss": "npm:@tailwindcss/postcss7-compat@^2.2.17", 30 | "vue-disqus": "^4.0.1", 31 | "vue-fuse": "^2.2.1", 32 | "vue-scrollto": "^2.20.0", 33 | "vue-twitter": "^0.1.0" 34 | }, 35 | "devDependencies": { 36 | "@fortawesome/fontawesome-svg-core": "^6.0.0", 37 | "@fortawesome/free-brands-svg-icons": "^6.0.0", 38 | "@fortawesome/free-solid-svg-icons": "^6.0.0", 39 | "@fortawesome/vue-fontawesome": "^2.0.6" 40 | } 41 | } 42 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /blog/20100105-console-games-why-do-we-have-to-press-start.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | --- 2 | title: "Console Games: Why do we have to press start?" 3 | date: 2010-01-05T06:00:00Z 4 | permalink: console-games-why-do-we-have-to-press-start 5 | description: "Ever wondered why console games make you press start before reaching the main menu? There's actually a good UX reason for this design pattern." 6 | summary: "Ever wondered why console games make you press start before reaching the main menu?" 7 | tags: 8 | - Gaming 9 | - UX Design 10 | - Console Games 11 | - User Experience 12 | categories: 13 | - "Development - Game Development" 14 | --- 15 | 16 | Interesting question came up on Twitter the other day: 17 | 18 | “Press Start” screens? Why can’t I just go straight to the main menu? 19 | 20 | If you’re a gamer, especially on consoles, you’ve seen this screen more often than you’d care to. It’s a little annoyance. However, there is a very good reason for having this screen in place. 21 | 22 | Imagine you’re running four controller on your Xbox, and all four of them are turned on. Then you put in a single player game, and it comes up to that annoying “Press Start” screen. Which controller do you use to press start with? The answer is easy: any of them! 23 | 24 | The “Press Start” screen is designed to determine which controller the game should poll for input. During this screen, the game is polling all connected controllers for input. If any of them register a “start” button push, the game makes that controller the “default” controller. The use-case for this scenario is that the player should be able to use any connected controller to play the game, and not be forced to use controller #1. This is considered a best practice. 25 | 26 | _The More You Know…_ 27 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /blog/20250610-tech-communities-ai-in-development-and-roller-coasters-fervent-four-podcast.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | --- 2 | title: "Tech Communities, AI in Development and Roller Coasters | Fervent Four Podcast" 3 | date: 2025-06-10T10:00:00Z 4 | permalink: fervent-four-podcast-tech-communities 5 | description: "Last week I had the pleasure of being on the Fervent Four podcast with Zack Miller and Tim Ryan. We talked about vibing coding and how AI needs to be handled the same way using offshore talent is handled. We discussed roller coasters (because of course) and the origin of my Shedquarters! And talked a lot also about the software development community in the Norfolk / Virginia Beach area." 6 | summary: "Last week I had the pleasure of being on the Fervent Four podcast with Zack Miller and Tim Ryan. We talked about vibing coding and how AI needs to be handled the same way using offshore talent is handled. We discussed roller coasters (because of course) and the origin of my Shedquarters! And talked a lot also about the software development community in the Norfolk / Virginia Beach area." 7 | tags: 8 | - Podcast 9 | categories: 10 | - Podcast 11 | --- 12 | 13 | Last week I had the pleasure of being on the Fervent Four podcast with [Zack Miller](https://www.linkedin.com/in/zackmillersays/) and [Tim Ryan](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryantnt/). We talked about vibing coding and how AI needs to be handled the same way using offshore talent is handled. We discussed roller coasters (because of course) and the origin of my Shedquarters! And talked a lot also about the software development community in the Norfolk / Virginia Beach area. 14 | 15 | I'd love for you to watch and let me know what you think! 16 | 17 | `youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87UXRC47ur0` -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /scripts/create-post.js: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | const fs = require('fs'); 2 | const path = require('path'); 3 | const readline = require('readline'); 4 | 5 | const rl = readline.createInterface({ 6 | input: process.stdin, 7 | output: process.stdout 8 | }); 9 | 10 | const BLOG_DIR = path.join(process.cwd(), 'blog'); 11 | 12 | // Ensure blog directory exists 13 | if (!fs.existsSync(BLOG_DIR)) { 14 | fs.mkdirSync(BLOG_DIR, { recursive: true }); 15 | } 16 | 17 | // Get current date in YYYY-MM-DD format 18 | const today = new Date().toISOString().split('T')[0]; 19 | 20 | // Ask for post title 21 | rl.question('Enter the title of your blog post: ', (title) => { 22 | // Convert title to kebab-case for filename 23 | const slug = title 24 | .toLowerCase() 25 | .replace(/[^a-z0-9]+/g, '-') 26 | .replace(/(^-|-$)/g, ''); 27 | 28 | const filename = `${today}-${slug}.md`; 29 | const filepath = path.join(BLOG_DIR, filename); 30 | 31 | // Check if file already exists 32 | if (fs.existsSync(filepath)) { 33 | console.error(`\nError: A file named "${filename}" already exists.`); 34 | console.error('Please choose a different title or delete the existing file.'); 35 | rl.close(); 36 | return; 37 | } 38 | 39 | // Create frontmatter and initial content 40 | const content = `--- 41 | title: "${title}" 42 | date: "${today}" 43 | description: "" 44 | tags: [] 45 | --- 46 | 47 | # ${title} 48 | 49 | `; 50 | 51 | // Write the file with error handling 52 | try { 53 | fs.writeFileSync(filepath, content); 54 | console.log(`\nCreated new blog post: ${filename}`); 55 | console.log(`Location: ${filepath}`); 56 | } catch (error) { 57 | console.error('\nError creating blog post:'); 58 | console.error(error.message); 59 | } 60 | rl.close(); 61 | }); -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /blog/20200515-how-do-you-call-a-stored-procedure-with-dapper.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | --- 2 | title: "How do you call a stored procedure with Dapper?" 3 | date: 2020-05-15T08:30:00Z 4 | permalink: dapper-stored-procedures 5 | description: "Learn how to use Dapper with stored procedures in .NET applications, including both query and non-query scenarios." 6 | summary: "Are you interested in using Dapper, but your database uses Stored Procedures? No problem!" 7 | tags: 8 | - .NET 9 | categories: 10 | - .NET 11 | excerpt: "Are you interested in using Dapper, but your database uses Stored Procedures? No problem!" 12 | --- 13 | 14 | During one of my latest renditions of [Better Object Relational Mapping with Dapper](), the question arose about using stored procedures. 15 | 16 | How do you call a stored procedure with Dapper? 17 | 18 | ```csharp 19 | using (var connection = new SqlConnection(CONNECTION_STRING)) 20 | { 21 | var storedProcedureName = "getAllUsers"; 22 | 23 | var results = await connection 24 | .QueryAsync
Today I’ve been diving into an easy way to paginate record sets in my applications. Searching around the internet yielded several good walkthroughs on how to do this. My favorite way came from my friend, Kevin Hazzardh, He discussed using the Skip() and Take() extension methods to form fit LINQ into building a SQL statement that’ll do all the heavy lifting for you.
Copying from Kevin’s example, I built the following code snippet:
17 | 18 | ```csharp 19 | int pageNumber = 1; 20 | int pageSize = 20; 21 | 22 | using (var entity = new Entities()) 23 | { 24 | var recordSet = (from r in entity.SomeTable 25 | orderby r.SomeID 26 | select r); 27 | recordSet = recordSet.Skip((pageNumber - 1) * pageSize).Take(pageSize); 28 | 29 | return recordSet; 30 | } 31 | ``` 32 | 33 |What’s nice about the following code is that since LINQ is lazy loading, the SQL built doesn’t actually execute until we need it too. The days of returning full datasets are done (yes, we’re still doing that on some projects).
34 | 35 |I went the next step to see if I could build an extension method of my own that did all of the above for me automatically. Here was the result I came up with:
36 | 37 | ```csharp 38 | public static class ExtensionMethods 39 | { 40 | public static IQueryableThis extension method takes the query returned from LINQ (an IQueryable), and applies the additional constraints to it. Here is the first example using my new extension method:
48 | 49 | ```csharp 50 | int pageNumber = 1; 51 | int pageSize = 20; 52 | 53 | using (var entity = new Entities()) 54 | { 55 | var recordSet = (from r in entity.SomeTable 56 | orderby r.SomeID 57 | select r); 58 | recordSet = recordSet.Paginate(pageNumber, pageSize); 59 | 60 | return recordSet; 61 | } 62 | ``` 63 | 64 |65 | 66 |
Ta da! Hopefully that makes sense. I’m open to other suggestions and comments. I’m learning that if I take about my thought processes on certain problems, that I receive a ton of great feedback from those who listen.
67 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /blog/20110214-building-better-connectionstrings-with-connectionstringbuilder.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | --- 2 | title: "Building better ConnectionStrings with ConnectionStringBuilder" 3 | date: 2011-02-14T05:00:02Z 4 | permalink: building-better-connectionstrings-with-connectionstringbuilder 5 | description: "Learn how to use .NET's ConnectionStringBuilder classes to create clean, flexible connection strings for OleDb, SQL Server, and Entity Framework." 6 | summary: "ConnectionStringBuilder makes it fool-proof to generate connection strings." 7 | tags: 8 | - "Development - C#" 9 | categories: 10 | - "Development - C#" 11 | --- 12 | 13 | Okay, I never admitted to being a .NET guru or anything, and that’s why I get so excited whenever I run across a gem in the framework that allows me to do something easier and with fewer issues. 14 | 15 | ConnectionStrings has always been one of those things I did the hard way. For example, I would have a line of code that was like so: 16 | 17 | ```csharp 18 | string connectionString = "Data Source={0};Initial Catalog={1};User Id={2};Password={3};"; 19 | string.Format(connectionString, serverName, databaseName, userName, password); 20 | ``` 21 | 22 | This seemed like a logical way to build my connection strings. However, it wasn’t very flexible. That was until I discovered the suite of ConnectionStringBuilder classes. 23 | 24 | Let’s take the above OleDb connection string and use the OleDbConnectionStringBuilder to build it. 25 | 26 | ```csharp 27 | System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnectionStringBuilder oleDbConnectionStringBuilder = 28 | new OleDbConnectionStringBuilder(); 29 | oleDbConnectionStringBuilder.DataSource = "myServer"; 30 | oleDbConnectionStringBuilder.FileName = "myAccessFile.mdb"; 31 | oleDbConnectionStringBuilder.ToString(); 32 | ``` 33 | 34 | Look at how much cleaner that is! Maybe you’re working with a SQL Server database: 35 | 36 | ```csharp 37 | System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnectionStringBuilder connectionStringBuilder = 38 | new SqlConnectionStringBuilder(); 39 | connectionStringBuilder.DataSource = "myServer"; 40 | connectionStringBuilder.InitialCatalog = "databaseName"; 41 | connectionStringBuilder.UserID = "userName"; 42 | connectionStringBuilder.Password = "password"; 43 | connectionStringBuilder.ToString(); 44 | ``` 45 | 46 | Isn’t that awesome?! Now, finally, let’s imagine you’re doing all this with Entity Framework: 47 | 48 | ```csharp 49 | System.Data.EntityClient.EntityConnectionStringBuilder entityConnectionStringBuilder = 50 | new EntityConnectionStringBuilder(); 51 | entityConnectionStringBuilder.ProviderConnectionString = connectionStringBuilder.ToString(); 52 | entityConnectionStringBuilder.Metadata = "(entity framework metadata here)"; 53 | entityConnectionStringBuilder.ToString(); 54 | ``` 55 | 56 | There you go! Instead of hand writing your connection strings, take a look to see if there is a StringBuilder class that’ll do the work for you. 57 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /src/css/main.css: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | @tailwind base; 2 | 3 | @tailwind components; 4 | 5 | @tailwind utilities; 6 | 7 | .theme-light { 8 | --bg-background-primary: white; 9 | --bg-background-secondary: #f7fafc; 10 | --bg-background-tertiary: #e2e8f0; 11 | 12 | --bg-background-form: white; 13 | 14 | --text-copy-primary: #2d3748; 15 | --text-copy-secondary: #4a5568; 16 | 17 | --border-border-color-primary: white; 18 | } 19 | 20 | .theme-light .search-highlighted { 21 | background: #f0fff4; 22 | } 23 | 24 | .theme-light .search-hover:hover { 25 | background: #f0fff4; 26 | } 27 | 28 | .theme-dark .markdown-body { 29 | color: #24292e; 30 | } 31 | 32 | .theme-dark .search-highlighted { 33 | background: #2d3748; 34 | } 35 | 36 | .theme-dark .search-hover:hover { 37 | background: #2d3748; 38 | } 39 | 40 | .theme-dark { 41 | --bg-background-primary: #0D2438; 42 | --bg-background-secondary: #102C44; 43 | --bg-background-tertiary: #1E3951; 44 | 45 | --bg-background-form: #1a202c; 46 | 47 | --text-copy-primary: #cbd5e0; 48 | --text-copy-secondary: #e2e8f0; 49 | 50 | --border-border-color-primary: #1a202c; 51 | } 52 | 53 | .theme-dark .markdown-body { 54 | color: #cbd5e0; 55 | } 56 | 57 | .content-wrapper { 58 | transition: background-color .25s; 59 | } 60 | 61 | a { 62 | @apply font-bold text-green-700; 63 | } 64 | 65 | a:hover { 66 | @apply text-green-800; 67 | } 68 | 69 | nav .active { 70 | font-weight: bold; 71 | @apply border-b border-black; 72 | } 73 | 74 | .container-inner { 75 | padding-left: 1rem; 76 | padding-right: 1rem; 77 | } 78 | 79 | @media (min-width: 640px) { 80 | .container-inner { 81 | max-width: 640px; 82 | } 83 | } 84 | 85 | @media (min-width: 768px) { 86 | .container-inner { 87 | max-width: 768px; 88 | } 89 | } 90 | 91 | @media (min-width: 1024px) { 92 | .container-inner { 93 | max-width: 800px; 94 | } 95 | } 96 | 97 | .checkmark { 98 | background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf8,%3Csvg%20width%3D%2229%22%20height%3D%2229%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A//www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M4.427%2024.93A14.5%2014.5%200%201%201%2024.93%204.427c5.495%205.69%205.416%2014.733-.177%2020.326s-14.637%205.672-20.326.177z%22%20fill%3D%22%232E855A%22/%3E%3Cpath%20fill%3D%22%23FFF%22%20d%3D%22M10.234%2012.803l3.67%203.253L20.766%2010%2023%2012l-9.096%208L8%2014.789l2.234-2z%22/%3E%3C/svg%3E"); 99 | background-repeat: no-repeat; 100 | @apply pl-10; 101 | } 102 | 103 | .responsive-container { 104 | position: relative; 105 | overflow: hidden; 106 | padding-top: 56.25%; 107 | } 108 | 109 | .responsive-iframe { 110 | position: absolute; 111 | top: 0; 112 | left: 0; 113 | width: 100%; 114 | height: 100%; 115 | border: 0; 116 | } 117 | 118 | .text-center { 119 | text-align: center; 120 | } 121 | 122 | .font-yellow { 123 | color: #ffd600; 124 | } -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /blog/20100126-leaving-it-better-than-you-found-it.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | --- 2 | title: "Leaving It Better Than You Found It" 3 | date: 2010-01-26T06:00:00Z 4 | permalink: leaving-it-better-than-you-found-it 5 | description: "A reflection on software development practices inspired by home renovation - why leaving code better than you found it benefits everyone." 6 | summary: "Everything you touch in your life, leave it better than you found it." 7 | tags: 8 | - Software Development 9 | - Best Practices 10 | - Code Quality 11 | - Philosophy 12 | categories: 13 | - Deep Thoughts 14 | --- 15 | 16 |When my wife and I bought our house back in April, one of my pet projects has been to renovate the room over our garage. I knew buying the house that it would be a lot of work, partly because the previous owner didn’t know what he was doing when finishing a room. I’ve spent the last week and half sanding, mudding, and fixing all the walls in this room. While sanding some dried mud tonight, I had a thought about how this experience was a lot like building software.
When building software, you’re not sometimes lucky enough to build a system from the ground up. Normally, you’ll inherit code from developers who have been hacking it for years. I related this to me working in my room. I inherited a poorly maintained room. The joints weren’t level with each other and the mud of the wall wasn’t smooth. The person doing the work took no pride in the work being done. The ceiling was also a “hacked” popcorn ceiling. I say hacked because, instead of using a hopper, the person slung dry wall mud onto the ceiling giving the illusion of popcorn. The illusion failed though because it looked horrible.
Fast forward to my work in the room last week. I had to go through and scrap all the excess mud off the wall. Each wall and joint had to be sanded, and mudded again in order to level everything. I’ve spend hours of time trying to reverse the effects caused by performing the job incorrectly.
What does this have to do with software development? Think about when you’re working on a bug in a piece of code, and it’s your first time looking at this code. How the previous developer left the code is how you’re going to inherit it. You might have to spend hours undoing the work of the previous person in order to get the code to a state it can be worked with. Hacks might have to be removed and properly implemented. Hours will be wasted that didn’t have to be.
When working on new code, do yourself and future developers a favor and leave the code in a state where it can be easily picked up and worked on. If you’re working on existing code, try to leave it in a better state than it was when you found it. In the long run, time will be saved, code will be more secure, and a developer will say fewer curse words.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /blog/20150803-banks-atms-and-horrible-user-experiences.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | --- 2 | title: "Banks, ATMS, and Horrible User Experiences" 3 | date: 2015-08-03T09:18:46Z 4 | permalink: banks-atms-and-horrible-user-experiences 5 | description: "A frustrating experience with a malfunctioning bank ATM and the poor customer service that followed, highlighting the need for better failsafes in critical systems." 6 | summary: "I had a horrible bank ATM experience." 7 | tags: 8 | - Deep Thoughts 9 | categories: 10 | - Deep Thoughts 11 | --- 12 | 13 | *Note: I'm pretty much going to rant about a bank experience I had. Lessons aren't obvious, but if you're designing something that's pretty dang important... make sure you have failsafes built-in.* 14 | 15 | I went to my local ATM yesterday to deposit a couple checks. I know, I know... why didn't I just use my phone? Turns out banking phone apps have limits on how much you can deposit through the app and I was well past that limit. ATM was a logical second choice if I didn't want to have to make visit to a teller. 16 | 17 | Generally, this type of visit is quick. 18 | 19 | 1. Pull up to ATM 20 | 2. Insert ATM card 21 | 3. Type in PIN number 22 | 4. Press DEPOSIT, select account. 23 | 5. Insert checks (optical reader will automatically figure out amounts) 24 | 6. Receipt, and on my way! 25 | 26 | Problem started around step 5. I put my checks into the reader where it proceeded to give me a "PROCESSING YOUR DEPOSIT" screen. Normally, this process takes 10 seconds. 27 | 28 | Ten seconds pass... 29 | Then a minute... 30 | OKAY.. five minutes... 31 | 32 | I'm starting to get a bit freaked out because I put a couple good sized checks into a machine and it's not doing anything! 33 | 34 | Next step is to try to call someone. My bank provides a 1-800 number for customer service. Turns out, there is no logical path for "OMG THE ATM STOLE MY CHECKS AND IS FROZEN". And really, there is no path for "I request to speak to a human who can properly direct this call." 35 | 36 | 30 minutes into my freak. I turned two other folks away because ATM was borked. All of a sudden, the screen flashes and pretends like NOTHING HAPPENED AT ALL. "Would you like to deposit the checks?" I pressed the **go** button and the ATM spat my checks out and told me to have a nice day. Wat? 37 | 38 | I also had a decent "check hold" on my account, which is normal when checks are processed. The bank is still investigating what the issue might have been. 39 | 40 | I'm pretty fortunate that I decided to stick around - or else someone might have been able to swipe my checks. Why doesn't the ATM go into "maintenance mode" or something after five minutes of not responding? Thirty minutes is way too long to wait for any sort of respond. 41 | 42 | On another note, why is there physically no way to talk to a human on the phone? At a minimum, I wanted the bank to have an option to "Press 0 if you just need to talk to someone." 43 | 44 | Blah. What horrible user experiences have you had with technology? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /src/index.html: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ${head} 6 | 10 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | ${app} 16 | ${scripts} 17 | 24 | 31 | 32 | 33 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /blog/20180501-i-removed-email-from-my-phone.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | --- 2 | title: "I Removed Email From My Phone" 3 | date: 2018-05-01T09:54:52Z 4 | permalink: good-bye-email 5 | description: "What's the next step after beating email addiction? Learn how removing email from my phone reduced anxiety and improved focus." 6 | summary: "What's the next step after beating email addiction?" 7 | tags: 8 | - Productivity 9 | - Email 10 | - Work-Life Balance 11 | - Digital Detox 12 | categories: 13 | - Deep Thoughts 14 | --- 15 | 16 | Several years ago, [I wrote about how I was taking steps to reduce my dependence on email](https://consultwithgriff.com/beating-email-addiction/). You should go give it a read if you haven't before. 17 | 18 | Like a good diet, I fell off that bandwagon after months and months of doing `really well`. 19 | 20 | Since I own my own business, I spend a lot of time in email conversing with clients, employees, contractors, and random people I'm trying to convince to give me money. I organize [conferences](https://revolutionconf.com), [user groups](https://hrnug.org), and a variety of other professional events. I'm active in my church, and get CCed on just about everything. 21 | 22 | I came to the realization that email itself was making me anxious. 23 | 24 | For example, I'd get up in the morning and quickly check email as a part of my morning routine. Some days were fine, but then other days I'd get an email that would **totally ruin me for the entire day.** 25 | 26 | Email became my fidget. If I was standing in line at the store, at a stop light, or just walking towards a building, I'd get my phone out and quickly check my email. 27 | 28 | The absolute worse time to check email is when you physically cannot respond to it. Some emails I forgot about, accidentally archived, or just said "I'll deal with this later". 29 | 30 | Then one day I came to a realization: the email on the phone had to go. 31 | 32 | It was **so easy**. Delete. 33 | 34 | Additionally, I added a message to my email signature specifically stating that I'm returning to my twice-a-day email routine, and I did not carry it on my device. Emergencies needed to move to phone calls or text messages. 35 | 36 | You'd be amazed how quickly an "emergency" dies down when someone has to pick up a phone. 37 | 38 | As of this writing, I've been without email on my device for two weeks. My level of anxiety is pretty much gone. Email takes all of 5-15 minutes depending on what I need to respond to. And best of all, email can only happen when I'm at my laptop - and that is a controlled situation. 39 | 40 | I encourage everyone to take a break from email. Even if it removing notifications or reducing your time to twice daily -- it is amazing how liberating it can be to not need to check email constantly. 41 | 42 | We cannot forget that email is asynchronous. In the same way we'd have to wait for snail mail or carrier pigeon, and email doesn't need to be received or answered immediately. There is no difference between a 2 minute response time and a 12 hour response time. 43 | 44 | I'd love to hear your thoughts about email. Does it rule your life or have you figure out how to tame it for the best? Leave a comment below! 45 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /tailwind.config.js: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | module.exports = { 2 | theme: { 3 | extend: { 4 | spacing: { 5 | '80': '20rem', 6 | '108': '27rem', 7 | }, 8 | borderWidth: { 9 | '14': '14px', 10 | } 11 | }, 12 | container: { 13 | padding: '1rem' 14 | }, 15 | colors: { 16 | background: { 17 | primary: 'var(--bg-background-primary)', 18 | secondary: 'var(--bg-background-secondary)', 19 | tertiary: 'var(--bg-background-tertiary)', 20 | 21 | form: 'var(--bg-background-form)', 22 | }, 23 | 24 | copy: { 25 | primary: 'var(--text-copy-primary)', 26 | secondary: 'var(--text-copy-hover)', 27 | }, 28 | 29 | 'border-color': { 30 | primary: 'var(--border-border-color-primary)', 31 | }, 32 | 33 | transparent: 'transparent', 34 | 35 | black: '#000', 36 | white: '#fff', 37 | 38 | green: { 39 | 100: '#f0fff4', 40 | 200: '#c6f6d5', 41 | 300: '#9ae6b4', 42 | 400: '#68d391', 43 | 500: '#48bb78', 44 | 600: '#38a169', 45 | 700: '#2f855a', 46 | 800: '#276749', 47 | 900: '#22543d', 48 | }, 49 | 50 | gray: { 51 | 100: '#f7fafc', 52 | 200: '#edf2f7', 53 | 300: '#e2e8f0', 54 | 400: '#cbd5e0', 55 | 500: '#a0aec0', 56 | 600: '#718096', 57 | 700: '#4a5568', 58 | 800: '#2d3748', 59 | 900: '#1a202c', 60 | }, 61 | }, 62 | fontFamily: { 63 | sans: [ 64 | 'Nunito Sans', 65 | '-apple-system', 66 | 'BlinkMacSystemFont', 67 | '"Segoe UI"', 68 | '"Helvetica Neue"', 69 | 'Arial', 70 | '"Noto Sans"', 71 | 'sans-serif', 72 | '"Apple Color Emoji"', 73 | '"Segoe UI Emoji"', 74 | '"Segoe UI Symbol"', 75 | '"Noto Color Emoji"', 76 | ], 77 | serif: ['Georgia', 'Cambria', '"Times New Roman"', 'Times', 'serif'], 78 | mono: [ 79 | 'Menlo', 80 | 'Monaco', 81 | 'Consolas', 82 | '"Liberation Mono"', 83 | '"Courier New"', 84 | 'monospace', 85 | ], 86 | }, 87 | }, 88 | variants: { 89 | // Some useful comment 90 | }, 91 | plugins: [ 92 | // Some useful comment 93 | ], 94 | future: { 95 | purgeLayersByDefault: true, 96 | removeDeprecatedGapUtilities: true, 97 | }, 98 | purge: { 99 | content: [ 100 | './src/**/*.html', 101 | './src/**/*.vue', 102 | './src/**/*.js', 103 | ], 104 | options: { 105 | // When upgrading Tailwind/PurgeCSS, migrate to safelist: 106 | // safelist: [ 107 | // { pattern: /^fa-/ }, 108 | // { pattern: /^svg-inline--fa/ }, 109 | // { pattern: /^token/, deep: true }, 110 | // { pattern: /^pre/, deep: true }, 111 | // { pattern: /^code/, deep: true } 112 | // ] 113 | whitelistPatterns: [/^fa-/, /^svg-inline--fa/], 114 | whitelistPatternsChildren: [/^token/, /^pre/, /^code/], 115 | } 116 | }, 117 | } 118 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /CLAUDE.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # CLAUDE.md 2 | 3 | This file provides guidance to Claude Code (claude.ai/code) when working with code in this repository. 4 | 5 | ## Commands 6 | 7 | ### Development 8 | - `npm run develop` - Start the Gridsome development server 9 | - `npm run build` - Build the static site for production 10 | - `npm run explore` - Open GraphQL explorer to query site data 11 | - `npm run create-post` - Interactive script to create a new blog post with proper frontmatter 12 | 13 | ### Docker Development 14 | - `npm run docker:build` - Build Docker image for development 15 | - `npm run docker:develop` - Run development server in Docker container (port 8080) 16 | 17 | ## Architecture Overview 18 | 19 | This is a Gridsome-based static site (Vue.js) for Kevin W. Griffin's personal blog and consulting website. The site generates static HTML from markdown content. 20 | 21 | ### Content System 22 | - **Blog posts** live in `/blog/` as markdown files with YAML frontmatter 23 | - **Documentation pages** are in `/docs/` for courses and consulting content 24 | - Posts require: `title`, `date`, `description`, `summary`, `tags[]`, and `categories[]` in frontmatter 25 | - New posts should be created using `npm run create-post` to ensure proper formatting 26 | 27 | ### Key Components Architecture 28 | - **Templates** (`/src/templates/`): Define how content types are rendered 29 | - `Post.vue` - Individual blog post pages 30 | - `Tag.vue` - Tag archive pages 31 | - `Documentation.vue` - Documentation pages 32 | - **Layouts** (`/src/layouts/`): Wrap pages with common UI elements 33 | - **Pages** (`/src/pages/`): Static pages like Index, Contact, Articles list 34 | 35 | ### Plugin System 36 | The site uses Gridsome plugins: 37 | - **Remark Plugins**: Handle YouTube embeds, Twitter embeds, and syntax highlighting 38 | - Content is processed through the remark pipeline configured in `gridsome.config.js` 39 | 40 | ### Styling 41 | - Uses TailwindCSS (PostCSS 7 compatible version due to Gridsome constraints) 42 | - Custom theme configuration in `tailwind.config.js` 43 | - Main styles in `/src/css/main.css` with GitHub markdown styles 44 | 45 | ### Search Implementation 46 | - Client-side search using Fuse.js 47 | - Search index is generated at build time from all content 48 | - Search component uses the generated index for fast client-side searching 49 | 50 | ### Deployment & Redirects 51 | - Primary deployment to Azure Static Web Apps (configured in `staticwebapp.config.json`) 52 | - Extensive redirect rules for legacy URLs and domain migrations 53 | - Alternative Netlify deployment available (`netlify.toml`) 54 | 55 | ### GraphQL Data Layer 56 | Gridsome provides a GraphQL data layer for querying content: 57 | - Use `page-query` or `static-query` in Vue components 58 | - Content is available at build time through GraphQL 59 | - Use `npm run explore` to interactively query the data layer 60 | 61 | ## Important Notes 62 | 63 | - No testing framework is configured - manual testing only 64 | - When modifying content queries, rebuild to see changes 65 | - The site uses static generation, so dynamic features require client-side JavaScript 66 | - Legacy URL redirects are critical for SEO - check `staticwebapp.config.json` before removing redirects 67 | - For local Gridsome dev, build inside docker container because i don't want to downground Node -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /.github/workflows/claude-code-review.yml: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | name: Claude Code Review 2 | 3 | on: 4 | pull_request: 5 | types: [opened, synchronize] 6 | # Optional: Only run on specific file changes 7 | # paths: 8 | # - "src/**/*.ts" 9 | # - "src/**/*.tsx" 10 | # - "src/**/*.js" 11 | # - "src/**/*.jsx" 12 | 13 | jobs: 14 | claude-review: 15 | # Optional: Filter by PR author 16 | # if: | 17 | # github.event.pull_request.user.login == 'external-contributor' || 18 | # github.event.pull_request.user.login == 'new-developer' || 19 | # github.event.pull_request.author_association == 'FIRST_TIME_CONTRIBUTOR' 20 | 21 | runs-on: ubuntu-latest 22 | permissions: 23 | contents: read 24 | pull-requests: read 25 | issues: read 26 | id-token: write 27 | 28 | steps: 29 | - name: Checkout repository 30 | uses: actions/checkout@v6 31 | with: 32 | fetch-depth: 1 33 | 34 | - name: Run Claude Code Review 35 | id: claude-review 36 | uses: anthropics/claude-code-action@beta 37 | with: 38 | claude_code_oauth_token: ${{ secrets.CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN }} 39 | 40 | # Optional: Specify model (defaults to Claude Sonnet 4, uncomment for Claude Opus 4.1) 41 | # model: "claude-opus-4-1-20250805" 42 | 43 | # Direct prompt for automated review (no @claude mention needed) 44 | direct_prompt: | 45 | Please review this pull request and provide feedback on: 46 | - Code quality and best practices 47 | - Potential bugs or issues 48 | - Performance considerations 49 | - Security concerns 50 | - Test coverage 51 | 52 | Be constructive and helpful in your feedback. 53 | 54 | # Optional: Use sticky comments to make Claude reuse the same comment on subsequent pushes to the same PR 55 | # use_sticky_comment: true 56 | 57 | # Optional: Customize review based on file types 58 | # direct_prompt: | 59 | # Review this PR focusing on: 60 | # - For TypeScript files: Type safety and proper interface usage 61 | # - For API endpoints: Security, input validation, and error handling 62 | # - For React components: Performance, accessibility, and best practices 63 | # - For tests: Coverage, edge cases, and test quality 64 | 65 | # Optional: Different prompts for different authors 66 | # direct_prompt: | 67 | # ${{ github.event.pull_request.author_association == 'FIRST_TIME_CONTRIBUTOR' && 68 | # 'Welcome! Please review this PR from a first-time contributor. Be encouraging and provide detailed explanations for any suggestions.' || 69 | # 'Please provide a thorough code review focusing on our coding standards and best practices.' }} 70 | 71 | # Optional: Add specific tools for running tests or linting 72 | # allowed_tools: "Bash(npm run test),Bash(npm run lint),Bash(npm run typecheck)" 73 | 74 | # Optional: Skip review for certain conditions 75 | # if: | 76 | # !contains(github.event.pull_request.title, '[skip-review]') && 77 | # !contains(github.event.pull_request.title, '[WIP]') 78 | 79 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /blog/20200816-stockholm-clients.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | --- 2 | title: "Stockholm Clients" 3 | date: 2020-08-17T00:00:00Z 4 | permalink: stockholm-clients 5 | description: "What happens when an amazing client turns into a nightmare client in the matter of weeks. You might be dealing with a Stockholm Client." 6 | summary: "What happens when an amazing client turns into a nightmare client in the matter of weeks. You might be dealing with a Stockholm Client." 7 | tags: 8 | - Freelancing 9 | - Client Management 10 | - Business 11 | - Psychology 12 | categories: 13 | - Freelancing 14 | - Entrepreneur 15 | excerpt: "What happens when an amazing client turns into a nightmare client in the matter of weeks. You might be dealing with a Stockholm Client." 16 | --- 17 | 18 | > Hey! I actually wrote this as a part of the **Journey to $100 Million** podcast by friends at [Array Digital](https://thisisarray.com/stockholm-clients/). Check it out! 19 | 20 | Have you heard of Stockholm Syndrome? It’s a fascinating case where people taken hostage by a kidnapper start to develop psychological alliances with their captors. After being in custody for a prolonged period of time, the kidnapped will start to sympathize and protect the folks that are putting them in danger. 21 | 22 | If you’re running a freelance business or even a small agency, it can be easy to fall into the trap of the “Stockholm Client”. 23 | 24 | **What do I mean by this?** 25 | 26 | When you’re starting out, it is really easy to jump on every opportunity that comes across your desk. You will hoard clients. You will bend over backward to help them. You might give unnecessary discounts. You might respond to issues within minutes, even after hours. Your relationship goes from that of partnership to more of master and slave. 27 | 28 | **And why is that?** 29 | 30 | Because the worst possible thing that could happen is being fired by the client. If they left, you and your family would starve. You’ll lose your house. You will never find another client. Everything will come falling down. 31 | 32 | So you go out of your way to make them happy - even if they’re taking advantage of the situation. 33 | 34 | I just recently went through this myself. A client of mine of 6+ years went from the best client I had to the neediest client I’ve ever had. I worked 10 to 12 hours per day to try to keep their expectations met, and I always seemed to fall short. 35 | 36 | There were in-person meetings where I was verbally yelled at and reprimanded by the project stockholder in front of all their employees. 37 | 38 | There wasn’t a way that I could win. But I kept moving forward with the client. 39 | 40 | Every person I’ve told this story tells me, “why haven’t you fired them?” 41 | 42 | 43 | And it’s because they were a Stockholm client. I was sympathizing with them and thinking that I was the problem. This caused me to be regularly stressed out, and neglectful of other aspects of my life and career. 44 | 45 | I was worried about other types of fallout, like lawsuits or whatnot. 46 | 47 | So I stayed in a bad relationship. 48 | 49 | Until I realized what I was doing. And I started the process of ending the relationship. Oh boy, the weight off my shoulders. 50 | 51 | If you find yourself dealing with a Stockholm client, I’m here to tell you it’s okay. There will always be other clients. Drop the bad ones, and seek out the good ones. 52 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /blog/20121231-nodejs-using-require-to-load-your-own-files.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | --- 2 | title: "Node.js: Using require to load your own files" 3 | date: 2012-12-31T06:00:31Z 4 | permalink: node-js-using-require-to-load-your-own-files 5 | description: "Learn how to use Node.js require() to load your own modules and keep your code clean and organized." 6 | summary: "Learn how to use Node.js require() to load your own modules and keep your code clean and organized." 7 | tags: 8 | - Node.js 9 | - JavaScript 10 | - Modules 11 | - require 12 | categories: 13 | - Development 14 | --- 15 | 16 | For a lot of JavaScript developers that are moving over from traditional "browser" development to node.js, they might be casually aware of the require keyword that node.js provides you. 17 | 18 | If you're wondering what I'm talking about, allow me to explain. In node.js, you can use the node package manager (NPM) to install packages that your application can use. Express, for example, is a great framework for serving up web applications, and you can grab it via NPM. 19 | 20 | To load Express into your application, you tell node.js that you "require" it be loading into memory. 21 | 22 | ```javascript 23 | var express = require("express"); 24 | ``` 25 | 26 | Node follows a couple rules to find modules. First, you can ask for a module by name or by folder. Let's look at Express more closely. If you were to download Express via NPM, you'd find there is no express.js file in the root directly of the /node_modules/express folder. However, there is a package.json file that defines the main executable file for express (for fun, go look it up). 27 | 28 | Now, if packages.json doesn't exist or the main executable isn't present, node will resort to looking for your filename with either a .js, .json, or .node extension (unless you've specified). 29 |