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

Working through COVID-19

📅 Posted 2020-04-22 (4 minute read)

Boy, these sure are interesting times. I’ve been working from home for about 5.5 weeks, as a result of the global COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic. Lucky that the organisation I work for takes it very seriously. I mean, they kinda have to. We have a lot of news journalists at work who are dedicated to ensuring the Australian public remains well-informed with accurate information. So it’s difficult for the Managing Director to refute the reports in the media!

How I became a Senior Digital Architect

📅 Posted 2020-04-21 (13 minute read)

A colleague at work asked me the other day: How did you become a solution architect? It’s a good question and one which required a bit of thought. So I figured I might as well write my answer here and share it. Of course, the usual disclaimer is relevant here: this is my story, your situation is probably different, this is not the only way, batteries not included, yadda yadda.

A new day, a new theme

📅 Posted 2020-04-19 (2 minute read)

So in light of all this crazy COVID-19 shenanigans, we’ve all suddenly got a huge amount of time at home. Rather than doing things I should probably be doing (like tax, or writing more articles), I decided to try a new theme on my site. The result of which is… I’m going for a “I can’t believe it’s not an architectual diagram” kind of theme. You know, boxes, lines, technical things.

My goals for 2020

📅 Posted 2020-03-23 (1 minute read)

Everyone has their own list. Written or otherwise. Some have New Years Resolutions (I don’t). I don’t normally write down such a list and even less publish it on the web. So here goes, my first “goals this year” list. Oh yes, I realise it’s already late March ⚠️, but hey, it takes some time to get around to these things! (in no particular order) At home: finish a moderate house project such as a deck with a roof Extra-curricular: play the piano every day (I’m definitely failing this one already) and learn new songs Side-project: build and launch my super secret open source music web app In my career: successfully wrangle the digital architecture at the ABC Big buys: acquire an electric car I think most of these are pretty achievable despite the COVID-19 outbreak currently facing the world.

2019 A Year in Review

📅 Posted 2020-01-06 (19 minute read)

I’ve been meaning to get around to writing an annual edition which summarises all of the events of the past 12 months on an annual basis. It’s a good time to sit back, reflect, laugh and share photos of the year that was. This post was inspired by a friend and work colleague of mine, Nico, and I think he does a really good job at it. Also, time is running out, since it’s pretty much the end of the Christmas break so I don’t have many days left to publish this entry, so I better get on with it.

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