Introduction

As you may already know, nowadays images are a big part of the web and, yet, they can cause a lot of challenges for the user experience if not properly optimized or delivered. This could dramatically slow down your site and according to Google: “Two seconds is the threshold for website acceptability. At Google, we aim for under a half-second.”

This means, if you are creating a website yourself, it’s important to optimize images as much as possible to improve the user experience. One technique of optimizing graphics on a website is to use Scalable vector graphics (SVG). …

Introduction

A few weeks ago, I was introduced to the Philips Hue Light. It seemed a little pricy for a lightbulb. Nevertheless, it tickled my curiosity enough to give it a shot. I bought the white ambience starter pack — as I really do not like the pure white glow — together with two Hue Play Light bars.

If you have read any of my other stories, you already know that I like to automate publishing websites, pipeline adjustments and Instagram embeddings. So of course, I wanted to automate the controlling of my smart lights as well. …

Introduction

In one of my previous stories, I explained how you could use Netlify to host websites for free — and create a domain for just $1 — . However, oftentimes you also want to update your site with new features or, in the case of a blog, add new stories. Unfortunately, deploying this website takes time. So why not automate your website deployment process?

When you host your source code on GitHub or BitBucket it is super simple to create a Netlify release pipeline for your website. …

Introduction

As Game of Thrones character Jon Snow would put it, “Winter is coming”. As we edge closer to the holiday period, the days are becoming shorter and the nights longer. This presents the perfect opportunity to find ways to keep yourself busy inside. As the COVID-19 pandemic makes it difficult to catch up with friends, I thought it would be a nice idea to investigate ideas for how to stay busy if you’re by yourself.

That’s why I created a list of five programming projects that can be worked on right now to help get you through the dark months. Working on one — or multiple — of these projects is an amazing way to improve yourself as a programmer. …

So it’s a new year and you commit to improving your health, career, or relationships, and after a week, you give up. “I just can’t get myself motivated,” you say.

We often tell ourselves this is true without knowing what the real motivation is, or should be. Motivation is the reason — or reasons — for acting or behaving the way you do.

The problem is that most of our motivation is temporary. Some days we feel super motivated in the evening, but in the morning when the alarm goes off, all our motivation will simply be gone.

You can try all sorts of methods and attempt to get yourself motivated like, self-talk, deadlines, routines, power poses, and other commonly used techniques. Unfortunately, you and I both know these methods never seem to work in the long term. We need a technique to get and keep you motivated. Here is something I found a couple of years ago to keep you motivated all year long —and repeat it every single year…

Introduction

At the beginning of this year, I began with my graduation project as a software engineer. There was one small problem, a pandemic was rising as well. In the beginning, I thought that it would soon all be over — but I was wrong. During the entirety of the graduation project, I was working by myself. This was not something I was prepared for during my education, but we all had to deal with it.

It was a tough 6 months but eventually, I graduated! Finally, but what now? No graduation party for me. No holiday. I decided to directly start my job at the graduation company, as I didn’t want to sit at home for some weeks. …

It’s time to create your own blog

This story explains how to do so with the help of VueJS and Nuxt content.

Introduction

After toying with the idea in my head for a while I decided to write a blog myself.

The purpose of my blog is to write interesting articles on various ICT topics. And I know, I’m not the first one. But maybe, just maybe people do like my style of writing. The only way I know to check this is to begin. — Or how Nike would say it “Just do it!” —

Besides, having a blog also shows your possible future boss that you are eager to learn and help other people! …

You just coded the best website ever, but how do you publish your website with its custom domain while also thinking about the costs?

Introduction

I think every programmer will recognize the following situation. You just began with your coding adventure and all of a sudden you get THE best website idea ever! You start coding and after a few intense programming days, you realize that it’s time to show your website to the world. But how do you do this, and furthermore how do you ensure that the costs remain limited? In this blog, I’ll explain how to publish a website with its own domain for less than $1. …