Using Github actions to deploy cloud functions

IMPORTANT - This article describres an old way of configuring github actions (this is what happens when using BETA products..). If you want to configure actions for your product, use the up-to-date docs on Github, I’ll try to update this article ASAP. Since Github Actions has been introduced I’ve been excited about the possibilites for automating my coding workflow without mixing in some advanced CI system. It’s currently still in Beta, but the foundations of the system allow you to basically automate all aspects of your code while keeping this pipeline versioned and defined next to your code.

Playing around with the first houdini API in Chrome

As of version 65 Chrome will be the first browser to support the CSS paint api. this is the first part of a set of specs which are collectively called Houdini. Houdini is just as magical as it sounds, because once it has full browser support, it will allow you to “Design your own css styles”. To give you a sense of what exactly this means, this website contains some samples of intended Houdini functionality.

Using normalizr to work with nested data in Vue & Vuex

Compared to older frameworks, developing an application in Vue is a real treat. However, even when working in Vue and Vuex, things can quickly become complicated. Especially when working with state objects that go multiple levels deep. I ran into this problem while developing and it has costed my quite some time to figure out an elegant solution for this. Since I haven’t been able to find proper examples on this online, I want to share my experiences and some code here.

Meetup talk: How I stopped worrying and learned to love (Vue/Components)

A few months ago I gave a talk at a developer’s meetup in Eindhoven. The title of my talk was: _How I stopped worrying and learned to love components_ and as you might have guessed from the title, it did include Vue.js. I have tried to keep my talk a mix between practical information about frontend frameworks and the actual rationale behind a component-based approach. Most modern frameworks facilitate working with components, but still it’s up to the developers to define the boundaries of individual components.

Retrospectify: a tool for doing collaborative retrospectives

At work we focus a lot on becoming more ‘agile‘ and working according to SCRUM. One of the recurring events in scrum is the retrospective. During retrospectives, the team mentions things that went well during the sprint and things that could be improved on in the next sprint. So far so good. We used to do this with sticky notes on a wall, because it “just works” and we shouldn’t make things more complex if it isn’t necessary.

Managing a music collection in the digital age

This post is about music. Every day, a new startup founder thinks it’s time to “disrupt” the music industry with fancy new business models. But the truth is, there are more than enough music related startups, but there’s still no easy way for me to manage my digital music. Whether it’s paid downloads from iTunes or a paid subscription to a music streaming service. I have listed a few key observations that show why digital music management is still difficult:

Parametric modelling in Blender using Sverchok

It’s been a while since I came something noteworthy to write about; however… Today is that day! I will start with a brief explanation of parametric modelling and then I’ll show you how to use Sverchok to create this random wireframe model based on a few simple nodes. What is parametric modelling? As the name suggests it’s modelling based on parameters. Most of the 3D software suits rely on the user supplying the “parameters” by dragging around boxes and spheres on a 3D stage.

Sliding Tabs for the web

More and more companies are ditching their native Android apps in favour of a web app or responsive website. There are only a few reasons left to invest time in developing a native Android app. Connecting a Bluetooth peripheral for example is difficult to do from the browser. Another example is one of Androids UI components, namely the sliding tabs. Once implemented correctly, sliding tabs really give your app some extra swag.

Categorizing music in Spotify

Just like everybody else, I’m a huge fan of Spotify. The way we have access to literally millions of songs from our laptops, pcs and smartphones is unimaginable. But I didn’t write this post to promote Spotify; I’m writing this post to point out an issue from a UX perspective; How can we let users create lists from these millions of songs while maintaining a healthy overview of their own music collection?

Data Visualisation in Blender

I’ve been working with Blender for several different projects now and more and more I find out how powerful this package actually is. I’ve been experimenting with different tools for data visualisation (for example, D3), but Blender also seems to be a suitable candidate for this job. How exactly can a multimedia/rendering software package help me with dataviz you might wonder? Well, Blender uses the very powerful and flexible Python scripting language to allow users to write their own add-ons.