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IBM Model F GlowUp
by Jon Collins
10mins
In this blog post we do a full teardown and build/glow up of the iconic IBM Model F keyboard. This heavy weapon (not kidding, it's like 10lbs) of a keyboard was a total workhorse from the early 80's, and persisted into the early 90's. It's heavy. It has a unique left mounted double function cluster. And it is, oh so very clicky and delicious. Let's dive into the Model F glow up!
CONTENT CREATED 2023-03-06
Reducing spam on your site forms
by Jon Collins
16 mins
Spammers and bots are the worst. Unless they are our bots. Ammiright?? So let’s take a look at a few different strategies we can employ to reduce the annoying spam and bot submissions that might be plaguing your web app and site forms!
CONTENT CREATED 2022-06-15
Moonlander Keyboard Review - part 2
by Jon Collins
13 mins
The exciting second-part conclusion to the Moonlander Ergonomic keyboard by ZSA review! I'll be discussing, portability, cost, the "was it worth it" question, customer support, and final thoughts. This article has been several months in the making, so strap in for the final ride on the Moonlander Keyboard hardware review!
CONTENT CREATED 2022-03-20
Moonlander Keyboard Review - part 1
by Jon Collins
12 mins
I was able to purchase the Moonlander Mark I by ZSA recently and I just had to start documenting my experiences with this board. Read on to find out what my 5 day experience has been like. Do I like it? What is the "columnar" layout like? In this review of the Moonlander I'll try to tell you everything you need to know about this super unique and ambitious mechanical keyboard. Strap in and let blast off!
CONTENT CREATED 2021-11-16
Avoiding the dreaded React Flicker
by Jon Collins
3 min read
In talking with several other developers, over the past few weeks, I discovered that a few had never used the React Hook **useLayoutEffect**. They were curious about how it was different from the much more popular, and usually, much more appropriate React Hook **useEffect**. So in this blog post, let's quickly breakdown the differences between these two hooks, and let's also talk about, in simple terms, when to use which.
CONTENT CREATED 2021-07-27
Changing careers is scary
by Jon Collins
5 min read
The challenges and anxiety that come with a "late stage" career change can be overwhelming. You will question yourself, you will doubt yourself, and you will likely face obstacles that you didn't anticipate. What follows is just my hot take on what changing careers in your thirties can look like, and just how scary/rewarding it can be. And how, it's never too late to become the person you always wanted to be.
CONTENT CREATED 2021-06-17
We need to talk about remote work
by Jon Collins
12 min read
Remote work was necessary as the Corona Virus Global Pandemic raged out of control. However, as infection rates drop and vaccination rates rise, there are many employers that are very anxious to get their employees back into their offices and cubicles. Citing collaboration and teamwork amongst other seemingly nonsensical reasons for on campus work, certain companies are clinging to the idea that remote work is bad. In this post, as usual, I'm going to provide my unique and, probably, unpopular opinion on remote work in a post pandemic world.
CONTENT CREATED 2021-06-04
Pineapple on Pizza and HTML
by Jon Collins
3 min read
Fire up any social media platform and you're likely to find a "tech" section. It'll be a gathering of (hopefully) supportive, unique, diverse, and knowledgeable individuals. There will be topics that delve into things like interview practices, how to make your code cleaner, and even entire threads and sub-threads dedicated to which movies and shows accurately depict coding. But there's a quirkier aspect to the tech community that you might not know about. There are raging debates on some not-so-normal topics and it's time we got to the bottom of a few of them.
CONTENT CREATED 2021-05-31
How many stacks is too many stacks
by Jon Collins
3 min read
At what point is learning everything. actually learning nothing at all? How much is too much? There are so many new technologies. It often feels like new frameworks and/or libraries are released daily. So how do we, as developers, keep up? Can we? Should we? The answer probably isn't as simple as we'd all like it to be. Let's explore how to achieve a compelling learning balance.
CONTENT CREATED 2021-05-28
Depression and programming
by Jon Collins
7 min read
As my first official blog post, it's difficult to know where to start. I don't anticipate many people will see or read this. In that sense, it's a little more like I'm talking to myself, rather than some abstract 3rd party that I have to explain things to. Still, I suppose I should, at least, attempt some semblance of coherence. So what better place to begin, than the beginning. I won't tell you the whole story mind you, you'd never come back and read any other posts. I will, however, try to be straight with you and give you the broad strokes.
CONTENT CREATED 2021-05-28