Today, I want to write about steps you can take to make your take home test easy to run, and win brownie points with reviewers. I spent a lot of time in the last half of 2023 reviewing take home test submissions. The company had opened hiring for junior through to senior positions, providing the same take home test for everyone. The goal of the test was to build a simple CLI application to search a provided JSON file containing a list of uniform entries. Read more...

I am working on a Ruby on Rails codebase that is quite long lived, though new to me, and has an RSpec test suite that takes a long time to complete. One common piece of advice when looking to speed up the test suite in CI is to avoid out going network requests. These requests not only slow down tests by the time taken, but also make the test results dependant on an external service. Read more...

Today I learned a neat way in Ruby to set the starting index to iterating through an enumerable using the .with_index method

Overview I decided to build a gbs-control so I can connect my PlayStation 2 over component to my LCD monitor. I have been using a generic passive convertor for component to HDMI. However my monitor doesn’t display 240p signals. Also it uses line doubling for 480i signals which causes a bobbing effect, and occasionally results in image retention. This could potentially cause long term damage. I have watched a few videos about the gbs-control project and it seems like a cost effective solution to my problem while also being a fun project. Read more...

One time I wanted to make some spaghetti and meatballs. I thought this recipe looked interesting because it required breadcrumbs soaked in milk. They can be cooked either by baking or boiling in a sauce. Both ways are delicious.

I saw this spinach curry being prepared on the TV one afternoon. I decided to record the recipe as I thought it looked like a simple and tasty meal to make. It took some time to make, but it was worth it.