Blogs Posts by Nick McHardy
Welcome to my blog, where I cover tech, games and whatever else that’s interesting in the universe like vinyl, fusion jazz and side projects.
This website is inspired by the web of the late 90s - no, not just the style of the site - but also harking back to a time when people would set up websites (probably on Geocities or similar) and write about anything that interested them. Most of the websites looked terrible (my first few sites were no exception) but it was so liberating having your own site. So here’s my modern-day version of that late 90s vibe.
Not sure where to start? Here are some blogs to get you started:
There’s also a 🍊 Garden Diary to check out. It’s sometimes updated as the seasons change.
Latest Posts
📅 Posted 2019-02-09
(8 minute read)
This is a story about the resurgence of radio in my life, at a time when everyone else has probably moved on.
Yes I’m talking about good ol’ fashioned radio. Generally FM broadcast, sometimes DAB+, sometimes a bit of streaming, but regardless: it’s back in my life.
For 7 years I presented a fusion jazz radio show on community radio, which was heaps of fun. Maybe I’m late to the party, but it also made me realise how cool the radio format is even today: there is quite a lot of choice when it comes to music and there’s plenty of eclectic radio shows to listen to, especially when you’re struggling to find inspiration yourself. I finished presenting a year ago to focus on other things in my life, such as Koi CMS, blogging and a new secret project which I will reveal one of these days.
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📅 Posted 2019-02-01
(2 minute read)
I’ve noticed a general trend towards more mobile users, but I think it would be good to quantify this. After all, developing websites purely on desktop is definitely easier but probably misguided.
The following mini-analysis is based on my corner of the Internet: not amazingly high traffic sites, but sites which are important to me none-the-less. The source for my numbers is Google Analytics.
The Comparisons
Here’s 4 very different websites compared.
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📅 Posted 2019-01-23
(7 minute read)
The tl;dr
Using AWS Polly to read my articles and generate audio “podcasts” results in an average listening experience. It works and it’s easy, but I wouldn’t want to use it as my primary way to generate articles. Want to hear why? Read on…
(Those wishing to sample the results without reading the gory details can scroll to the end)
The concept of Generating Podcasts using Amazon Polly
Rather than having to painstakingly record and edit all of my articles with a proper mic, what if I use something like Amazon’s Polly on AWS to do the heavy lifting for me?
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📅 Posted 2018-12-20
(5 minute read)
Recently, I wrote an article about Analytics as Code, which was my way of attempting to apply “Infrastructure-as-code” to something new. A work colleague alerted me to the fact that when he Googled the term, someone else had already written on the topic! In fact, a few people have. But one site, which ranked first, really stood out.
It wasn’t my website, but it was my article!
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📅 Posted 2018-12-09
(10 minute read)
Recently I’ve been involved in managing several teams who are making their move from running as project teams to product teams. Today I am taking stock of what this might involve and looking at how people respond to the change. This is the result of 4 months of solidly running with products.
Some Background
As with a lot of organisations, spinning up large capitally-funded technology projects is the de facto standard on how things get done. Sneaking through the gaps of governance, small things get done with agencies to tactically deliver some work. Both of these approaches can be unsustainable, as both large projects and small initiatives can leave behind technology solutions that people don’t tend to know much about and who aren’t formally allocated to maintain.
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