Posts by Leon Wright
Cloud Developer Kits gloss over their best feature!
- 06 December 2024
Between the little over two years since I wrote ‘No one should write Terraform’, rewriting large parts of our Internal Developer Platform, and starting on ‘Cally’; there was something myself and most of the commenters missed. Cloud Development Kits often ignore what I would consider one of the strongest selling points. Decoupling yourself and your engineers from your infrastructure!
Overhauling techman83.me… again!
- 18 November 2024
Seven years ago, a younger me, a guy a year into his first software engineering role, ended this post with:
No one should write Terraform
- 13 August 2022
Reflecting upon zwischenzugs insightful and thought provoking article “Who should write the Terraform?”, the TL;DR conclusion I’ve come to is “No One”.
The Hugs Strike Back!
- 29 January 2018
Another year, another amazing Linux Conf AU! Based on feedback from LCA2017, I was definitely going to iterate on the hug detector. In that time the ESP32 platform has begun to mature and because I like challenges, decided to use a board I received days prior to leaving for the conference and really only flashed with blink.
Come on; do you want your mods to live forever?
- 22 January 2018
At the Linux Conf Au Games and Foss Mini Conference, @ducky_tape and @The_McJones gave me an opportunity to talk on my experiences archiving over 11,000 mods for Kerbal Space Program. It was also captured by the awesome LCA AV Team, which you can watch here!
Don’t underestimate the… Doorbell
- 04 June 2017
A while ago I needed a doorbell, so I hacked one together using a Raspberry Pi I had laying around. It was a temporary fix while I got around to building an Arduino based replacement. A month or so ago the SD card croaked, so it was time.
Hacking your Conference badge for Hugs & Profit
- 22 January 2017
Last week was Linux Conf AU 2017, which is a community run Free and Open Source Software conference that is in a different A/NZ city every year. This year I’d managed to attend the Open Hardware MiniConf and was inspired to build something during the conference. I’m not sure how it occurred to me to build a ‘Hug Detector’ into my Conference badge, but it did and after talking about it with some fellow delegates, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
Automating your home with ‘themachine’
- 11 January 2017
There will be more posts to come, but for some time I have been playing around with home automation. One of the things I really wanted to do was utilise some form of machine learning to make decisions about when I wanted the Shed’s Airconditioning or the wall fan turned on. I could have utilised rules in my OpenHAB based home automation system, however I’d already gotten reasonably creative with those and wanted a challenge.
Overhauling techman83.me
- 08 January 2017
When I first started this blog blog in early 2014, I had grand intentions of keeping it up to date. I got a great start forking it from Paul Fenwick’s website which actually provided a solid foundation to build this one.
Powershell + Windows Update
- 09 June 2015
Windows administration is part of my job that I don’t enjoy as much as linux, but it is still necessary. Though Windows is becoming less and less required, a lot of software still relies on it.
EventStreamr Talk at PLUG
- 16 April 2015
This week I presented at PLUG, a brief history of AV, PLUG’s involvement with Linux Conf AU and EventStreamr.
Title: WebService::Strava - A Strava API Perl Client
- 26 August 2014
Being a Cyclist and a Geek, I like to track things. Being a Sys Admin and a Programmer I also like this to happen in the most efficient manner possible. Insert Strava, which is basically a social networking platform for cyclists/runners/swimmers (I believe they’re adding more as well). Strava has an App for recording things or you can use any app or device that can output in one of the supported formats (GPX, FIT and TCX).
Jira Automation + Copying Fields
- 04 August 2014
We heavily utilise Jira at my place of work and one of our non IT based departments use it in their business processes. It was chosen to replace a custom developed, unreliable .NET application and apart from minor bending to suit the processes Jira is an excellent replacement. It’s also far more reliable, far easier to keep up-to-date and runs on Linux!
My Xperia Z broke itself!
- 29 July 2014
Mid June I was notified by Vodafone that I could transfer my Crazy John’s service and to sweeten the deal, I could upgrade early. I checked out what was available and the Xperia Z had the best specs and kept me on the same plan I had previously. The real big tick in Sony’s favour was the fact there was a factory supported unlocking method, the usual caveats apply but I’ll vote with my wallet every time (are you listening Samsung!).
Freehub Repair/Replace Clutch Master Cylinder
- 23 March 2014
After the usual Saturday shopping I decided I needed to repair my Ute and my bike. I figured the best place to start was replacing my Clutch Master Cylinder, after 18 years of service it was no longer operating very well. Driving around wasn’t so bad, but parking had become quite tricky. The weekend before I replaced the Slave cyclinder, which was leaking. However wasn’t the cause of the issue. It was a pretty simple job to replace and Leish (My wife) helped me bleed the air out of the system. Which took longer than fitting it.
Dancing with WebSockets
- 20 February 2014
I learnt during the development of the EventStreamR frontend that websockets are cool! Another learning project of mine is NanodeControl and after learning what all the cool new things are available I wanted to have a crack at making it more modern.
Bottom Bracket Refit + Dropout repair
- 12 February 2014
As a follow up to my previous post, I ordered an upgraded BB. Being a Shimano HollowTech II, the different screw in type BBs are interchangeable. So long as you get the correct thread and width. Mine had the english thread (1.37x24) and the bracket width of 68mm. The bike shop had stock of a Dura-Ace SM-BB9000 in their warehouse, being only a little more than the equivilent Shimano 105 I decided to spring for the upgrade (mine only had a Tiagra, so quite an upgrade indeed).
Git: Bah, wrong branch!
- 11 February 2014
I love git, it’s a really great tool. However no matter how used I get to my workflows I eventually end up commiting something into the wrong branch!
Bottom Bracket Removal
- 06 February 2014
For those that don’t know me, I like to cycle. Though I do find it difficult to fit the time in, I find it really easy to make it part of my commute to work. Commuting however is pretty hard on your equipment. Especially if you’re not afraid of a bit of water. (I’m not, not even horizontal rain!)
Automating AV: EventStreamr
- 20 January 2014
EventStreamR come to inception from a collection of experiences amongst our local LUG the Perth Linux User Group. Although we call ourselves PLUG, we have members from all over the state. Western Australia being quite large, 2,529,875 square km or over 10 times bigger than Victoria; so some of our members find it quite difficult to attend. A few years ago an initiave started by James Bromberger was to film and live stream all PLUG talks so that every member had an oppurtunity to attend our meetings, even if they couldn’t necessarily make it in person.
First Post!
- 19 January 2014
I’ve been saying it for years, “I should make a website!”. However “Graphic Design” and “Presentation” aren’t really things that excite me and so motivation was hard to come by. Sure there are CMS frameworks; but for a little website to display my random thoughts, the learning curve and time involved really meant that it never happened. Fortunately I follow an awesome dude named Paul Fenwick and he built this site and encouraged others to fork the codebase. Of which I was more than happy to oblige. Thanks Paul!