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:

Learning About Leadership Episode 1 (May ‘20)
The Humble Minidisc (Aug ‘18)
Why the Sega Dreamcast is the Best Console of All Time (Aug ‘18)
Common Website Vulnerability Scans Found in Logs (Apr ‘18)
On Being an Engineering Manager (Feb ‘19)

There’s also a 🍊 Garden Diary to check out. It’s sometimes updated as the seasons change.

Latest Posts

How much does it cost to run a serverless CMS on AWS?

📅 Posted 2018-03-31 (4 minute read)

How much exactly? Turns out to be not a lot. This is a short write-up on the infrastructure costs of running a “serverless” CMS using AWS. The data is based on figures from March 2018, although the numbers don’t really change a lot from month to month. Firstly, if cost was a primary goal, then the solution may be a little different. I know you could go down pretty thrifty routes with GitHub Pages + Cloudflare… However, the primary goal of my CMS product is to make the management of websites easy for business users.

Hanging up the Fusion Delusion mic one last time

📅 Posted 2018-03-12 (3 minute read)

The Fusion Delusion What? The Fusion Delusion was a radio programme on community radio station Eastside Radio 89.7fm from February 2011 to February 2018. It showcased fusion jazz from all around the world, but particularly focused from the years 1969 until the modern era. Artists like Herbie Hancock, Weather Report, The CAB and Jean-Luc Ponty were favourites, alongside Chick Corea and Return to Forever, of course! Common segments included Disco Track of the Week (DTOTW), which slowly morphed into Laser Soul Track of the Week (LSTOTW) over time due to the refinement of early 80’s synth criteria.

Building a serverless CMS using AWS and Hugo

📅 Posted 2018-03-12 (9 minute read)

So lately I’ve been keeping myself busy by developing my own CMS. It’s an interesting project despite the fact that there are already so many Content Management platforms to choose from, but I’ve come up with something that works well for me. Here are my thoughts on the process. But first! A special mention to Hugo. It is such a simple way to build fast sites. Very impressed. You should check it out.

Laser Soul Track of the Week

📅 Posted 2018-02-13 (2 minute read)

Back when I used to host a radio show on East Side Radio, I’d occasionally dip outside the world of Fusion Jazz and instead play some slick beats from the legends of 80s synth. This will basically form your ultimate resource of the best boogie tracks that your ears have never been graced with. You could call it post-disco or boogie or lazer soul or 80′s funk soul… and it’s just the best damn music ever.

Books that I've helped publish

📅 Posted 2018-02-11 (2 minute read)

So in my spare time I help publish books, particularly ones about History in the Hawkesbury (NSW Australia) region. Below you will find a description of these books. If you are interested in purchasing a book or two, you can download the order forms at Hawkesbury.org. Reminiscences of Richmond - From the Forties Down by Samuel Boughton Originally published as a series of over 120 weekly columns in The Hawkesbury Herald newspaper from 1903-1905 this epic tale was written by Samuel Boughton (1841-1910) under the nom-de-plume of ‘Cooramill’.

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