Blog on Sean Fisher

Vs Code Allow Command Palette to Remain Open When Window Loses Focus

Sun, 24 May 2020 10:21:30 -0500

This morning I discovered a life-changing setting in VS Code to allow the command palette to stay open after the window loses focus. tl;dr Use the "workbench.quickOpen.closeOnFocusLost": false setting to avoid losing all your state when changing windows. There are lots of reasons I dislike Excel, and lots of reasons I love it. One of the reasons I love it is the ability to be editing a cell, tab away, and when I tab back it’s exactly as I left it.

How to Play Codenames Online

Sun, 17 May 2020 00:10:49 -0500

How to Play Codenames Online EDIT: Czech Games Edition, the company behind Codenames, sent me a nice note requesting me to take down the game and the Github code repository. I did. Maybe I’ll repurpose the core game engine with some small tweaks to the mechanics for a different game. In the meantime, you can check out the list of alternatives below. My wife and I love Codenames, and we love playing with friends.

Drones are Overhyped

Thu, 26 Oct 2017 22:08:49 -0500

Drones are Overhyped

Drones are generally overhyped.

I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I know. I love drones too. But there’s just more to the story.

Monetizing Alexa Skills

Wed, 20 Sep 2017 22:08:49 -0500

Monetizing Alexa Skills

So you have one of the many (and multiplying) devices that let you talk with Amazon’s Alexa service. Now you’re thinking about building an app for it and wondering, “How can I make money at this?”

Azure SQL Database Timeouts in Entity Framework 6 Code First Migrations

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 12:00:48 -0500

Azure SQL Database Timeouts in Entity Framework 6 Code First Migrations Recently we ran into an issue with EF 6. As part of our continuous integration/continuous delivery pipeline we run integration tests in one of our environments. In order to achieve exactly reproducible (and fast) test runs, we spin up four fresh databases and add them to a pool. We initialize the database using EF (so it runs our migrations), perform the tests, and then tear them down.

The Business Value of Continuous Integration

Sat, 24 Jun 2017 10:57:48 -0500

The Business Value of Continuous Integration

In a world with increasing reliance on performant systems, how can businesses enhance the value their systems provide to users?

NVM and Visual Studio Code

Wed, 26 Apr 2017 00:26:49 -0500

How to use NVM and VS Code together UPDATE January 2018 - NVM and VS Code now play nicely together - this post is maintained as historical reference If you want to skip straight to the working code, see it on Github: NVM is a great way to manage your Node.js versions. Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is a great lightweight editor that is quickly becoming the de facto standard in Javascript/Typescript development.

Non-Obvious Tips for Buying a House - Lessons Learned as a Home Buyer

Wed, 19 Apr 2017 23:08:37 -0500

We are first-time home buyers purchasing a nice townhouse in a great location, and we’ve learned oodles of non-obvious things we wished we would have known before going through the process - there are even some things to do months in advance! Here are some of the tips we’ve learned, organized roughly by time frame. Remember, I’m not an agent, lawyer, or loan officer, and we live in Texas. Some of this info might vary by state, and always double check all this advice with a professional.

How To: Using Environment Variables in the Browser with Angular and Azure App Services, Part 2

Fri, 07 Apr 2017 15:53:19 +0000

This is part two of a two-part series. For the first part see How To: Using Environment Variables in the Browser with Angular and Azure App Services, Part 1 In this two-part series I’ll talk about: Part 1: Why to separate your configuration and code How to do it “in general” How to do it with an Azure App Service Some typical solutions for managing environment variables in the browser Part 2:

How To: Using Environment Variables in the Browser with Angular and Azure App Services, Part 1

Fri, 07 Apr 2017 11:34:11 +0000

In this two-part series I’ll talk about: Part 1: Why to separate your configuration and code How to do it “in general” How to do it with an Azure App Service Some typical solutions for managing environment variables in the browser Part 2: Using environment variables with an Angular app served from an Azure App Service. Separating Configuration and Code Experienced developers recognize that a best practice for writing apps is to strictly separate configuration and code.

Continuous Integration for AWS Lambda using Bitbucket

Sun, 02 Apr 2017 14:45:11 +0000

This post will explain how to set up a fully automated continuous integration/continuous deployment system for a node.js AWS Lambda Serverless service. This is the best way of deploying to AWS lambda if the code you’re using needs a native package (such as node-sqlite3 or better-sqlite3), because you’ll build your package on roughly the same operating system that powers AWS Lambda. However, this method is good to use for any AWS Lambda Serverless service.

Hugo

Mon, 20 Mar 2017 23:21:09 -0500

Oh, which static site generator to use? I end up on staticgen.com all the time with my mouth watering. Jekyll, of course, has long been the top dog. It has the most mindshare primarily because Github Pages supports it out of the box. I’ve played around with Jekyll, and I’ve found it useful, and Ruby is always fun. For some reason I didn’t click with it, but for you it may be a good option.