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Powered by Hashnode, Next.js, shadcn/ui and Vercel.Template built by Alex Kates. The source code is available on GitHub.
    • Let's Talk About Rejection
      3/6/2025•105 views•3 min read•13 likes
      aws
      stoicism
      On March 4th, 2025, I woke up thinking it was just another Tuesday morning. Like many people, I started my day by making a cup of coffee and scrolling through social media. But this day was different because it was the AWS Community Builder acceptanc...
    • Introducing CongressGPT
      7/28/2024•69 views•2 min read•27 likes
      aifortomorrow
      hashnode
      next.js
      TL;DR For the Hashnode AI For Tomorrow Hackathon, I launched CongressGPT to help us finally understand what Congress is actually doing. CongressGPT lets users have natural language conversations with the latest bills from the United States House of R...
    • How I Built a Guestbook Page using Supabase and Next.js
      2/22/2024•188 views•13 min read•0 likes
      supabase
      next.js
      typescript
      I've come across a fun website feature that has been appearing mainly on developers' personal sites: a Guestbook page where users can sign in and leave a message. This somewhat reminds me of the old Facebook wall from the 2000s which I admit I miss v...
    • Introducing Hashnode Next
      2/2/2024•317 views•3 min read•40 likes
      apihackathon
      hashnode
      next.js
      TL;DR For the Hashnode APIs Hackathon, I launched hashnode-next, a beautifully simple Hashnode starter kit powered by Next.js and shadcn/ui. Hashnode-next is the fastest way to go headless with Hashnode, enabling you to migrate your blog with just on...
    • 7 Essential Meta Tags for Enhancing Your SEO and Social Media Approach
      1/6/2024•14 views•5 min read•0 likes
      html
      seo
      web development
      As a web developer, it's important to understand and effectively use meta tags to enhance your website's SEO, social media presence, and overall user experience. Below are the top 7 SEO and social media-related meta tags that you should ensure are pa...
    • Introducing Supajournal
      12/21/2023•42 views•3 min read•4 likes
      next.js
      side project
      ai
      TL;DR 📚 For the Supabase Launchweek X Hackathon, I launched supajournal.app, an AI-powered journal that features statistics tracking and AI-generated writing prompts. Intro 👋 “Write hard and clear about what hurts.” – Ernest Hemingway Journaling...
    • Hosting Custom Fonts in AWS
      11/27/2023•257 views•11 min read•35 likes
      aws
      typescript
      web development
      Alright, here's the scenario: You're a front-end developer who was just given a stunning custom font from your designers, and they're incredibly excited about it. They want to use it as soon as possible. However, you're only familiar with using fonts...
    • Introducing Guaranteed Buybacks with the Croissant Chrome Extension
      11/12/2023•70 views•4 min read•10 likes
      web development
      startups
      About 18 months ago I joined Croissant as Director of Engineering to help change the way we think about shopping. The stuff you buy has value beyond the point of purchase and Croissant's Guaranteed Buybacks ensure that your purchases retain their wor...
    • Mastering AWS S3: 7 Essential Tips for Using the aws s3 ls Command
      10/30/2023•171 views•3 min read•11 likes
      aws
      cloud
      developer
      In this article, we explore 7 useful AWS CLI commands for managing S3 buckets, including checking bucket size, listing objects with specific extensions, finding the largest files, listing objects from a specific date, listing objects with a specific ...
    • Upgrade Your Vercel Hosted Astro App to Bun 1.0
      9/12/2023•379 views•4 min read•10 likes
      astro
      bun
      vercel
      Vercel rolled out native support for Bun 1.0 just 72 hours after its launch. That's the kind of speed that got me excited to switch my new Astro project, BullyBarks, over to Bun 1.0. In this blog post, we're going to walk through a step-by-step guide...
    • Server-Side Rendering (SSR) with Bun and React
      9/9/2023•5,524 views•8 min read•111 likes
      bun
      react
      typescript
      The much-awaited JavaScript Swiss Army knife, Bun, has finally released its 1.0 version, and it's a game-changer. If you're new to the scene, Bun serves as an all-in-one JavaScript runtime and toolkit, engineered for blazing speed. It comes complete ...
    • Yes, You Should Use TypeScript
      9/7/2023•1,389 views•3 min read•168 likes
      typescript
      javascript
      software development
      The developer community has been set abuzz by DHH's recent Twitter announcement: Turbo 8 will not be using TypeScript. This has reignited a classic debate among developers—TypeScript or JavaScript? https://twitter.com/dhh/status/1699427078586716327 ...
    • VTL Quote Escaping for AWS API Gateway and Kinesis Integration
      9/1/2023•102 views•3 min read•20 likes
      aws
      Introduction AWS provides a wide range of services that, when combined, can produce powerful results. One such combination is the direct integration of API Gateway with Kinesis, although it comes with its own set of challenges. In this post, we will ...
    • Turning Obstacles Into Opportunities
      3/16/2023•255 views•5 min read•10 likes
      stoicism
      crisis
      learning
      Introduction For many years, I had heard about the ancient philosophy of Stoicism, but I never took the time to dive deeper into its teachings. That is, until the Summer of 2022, when I attended Michael McGill's Practical Stoicism online course. From...
    • Introducing FitGPT
      3/6/2023•1,042 views•5 min read•32 likes
      next.js
      side project
      ai
      TL;DR 📚 I've launched https://fitgpt.xyz, which offers an AI-powered Fitness Coach capable of creating specialized workout routines and personalized meal plans tailored to your current fitness level and future goals. Intro 👋 Are you feeling bored w...
    • MacBook Pro M1 Developer Setup 2022
      5/14/2022•9,373 views•4 min read•67 likes
      software development
      web development
      I just picked up a new MacBook Pro M1 and decided to take this opportunity to document all of the various applications that I use on a daily basis. Brave My go to browser for the past year has been Brave. As a web developer, it offers me everything t...
    • How to Trigger an AWS CloudWatch Alarm from a Lambda Function
      5/10/2022•3,630 views•4 min read•37 likes
      aws
      typescript
      aws-cdk
      In this post, we are going to use the AWS CDK and TypeScript to build a Lambda Function that triggers a CloudWatch Alarm that sends an email when an invocation error occurs. All of the code can be found in this repository. Setup We need to run a few ...
    • Introducing Petsura
      3/28/2022•522 views•2 min read•27 likes
      hasura hackathon
      hasura
      TL;DR My submission for the Hasura X Hashnode Hackathon is Petsura. Help pets find their forever homes! Quickly scroll your feed of adoptable fluffs and share on Twitter, send an email to the foster, or open the pet directly in Petfinder Petsura ...
    • Introducing Hashnode Roulette
      2/27/2022•354 views•3 min read•48 likes
      netlify
      netlifyhackathon
      hashnode
      TL;DR My submission for the Hashnode/Netlify hackathon is Hashnode Roulette. Make your hashnode feed wonderful. Quickly find new stories and authors to follow using simple mobile gestures. Hashnode Roulette is powered by the Netlify platform, built ...
    • How We Scaled the Credit Genie Platform with AWS Serverless
      2/26/2022•1,396 views•7 min read•43 likes
      startups
      aws
      I was recently interviewed by Elise Greve of AWS about how we scaled Credit Genie from MVP to a full-scale platform with over 20 AWS Amplify applications. You can find the original article here. In this post I want to expand on some of the topics cov...
    • How to Customize Your Hashnode Navbar
      2/11/2022•763 views•2 min read•29 likes
      hashnode
      tutorial
      In this post, we are going to learn how to add external links and blog series links to the Hashnode navbar. Adding custom navbar links to your blog's home page is a great way to direct your readers to all of your other work! Let's take a look! 👇 F...
    • On The Topic of Creating Content
      1/29/2022•692 views•4 min read•62 likes
      writing
      2articles1week
      general advice
      I've consistently been creating software development content through my blog and Twitter for a year. This week, I want to pause the technical posts and reflect on my content creation process and what I've learned with the hope that it resonates with ...
    • How to Trigger an AWS Lambda Function from a Kinesis Stream
      1/28/2022•187 views•3 min read•1 likes
      aws
      2articles1week
      In this post, we are going to use the AWS CDK to build an AWS Lambda Function that triggers from an AWS Kinesis Stream. All of the code can be found in this repository. Setup We need to run a few commands to set up our CDK app. mkdir how-to-trigger-l...
    • How to Trigger an AWS Lambda Function From an SQS Message
      1/27/2022•2,461 views•3 min read•4 likes
      aws
      javascript
      aws-cdk
      2articles1week
      In this post, we are going to use the AWS CDK to build an AWS Lambda Function that is triggered from an AWS SQS message. All of the code can be found in this repository. Setup We need to run a few commands to set up our CDK app. mkdir how-to-trigger-...
    • How to Animate a Waving Hand Emoji Using TailwindCSS
      1/25/2022•914 views•2 min read•8 likes
      tailwind css
      2articles1week
      I recently spent time polishing the mobile responsiveness for my personal site, https://alexkates.dev, and I wanted to add a little animation flair to some empty space next to my Hero introduction. 👋 TL;DR 👋 I made the waving hand emoji actually w...
    • The Top 5 Must-Read Extreme Programming (XP) Resources
      1/25/2022•272 views•5 min read•11 likes
      agile
      2articles1week
      Extreme Programming (XP) is a software development methodology that promotes communication, simplicity, feedback, courage, and respect in order to create higher quality software and maximize the quality of life for developers. The following resource ...
    • How to Use Jest to Mock Luxon's DateTime.now Function
      1/23/2022•751 views•3 min read•0 likes
      jest
      tdd (test-driven development)
      Ever try to use test-driven development when working with Luxon's DateTime.now() method and need to use the expected current timestamp in your business logic? In this post, we are going to look at why business logic that depends on the current date a...
    • How to Trigger an AWS Lambda Function from an SNS Message
      1/21/2022•810 views•3 min read•10 likes
      aws
      100daysofcode
      cloud
      In this post, we are going to use the AWS CDK to build an AWS Lambda Function that triggers an AWS SNS message. All of the code can be found in this repository. Setup We need to run a few commands to set up our CDK app. mkdir how-to-trigger-lambda-fr...
    • 5 Hashnode Features to Level Up Your Blog
      1/19/2022•558 views•3 min read•10 likes
      hashnode
      developer
      It's never been easier to start your own blog. Platforms like Hashnode have made it easier than ever to create content. But with so many blogs out there, what can you do to make yours stand out? In this post, I'll break down 5 Hashnode features that ...
    • How I Built a Wordle Clone Using Next.js, TailwindCSS, and TypeScript
      1/17/2022•2,792 views•4 min read•128 likes
      100daysofcode
      typescript
      next.js
      tailwind css
      TL;DR I built a Wordle Clone using Next.js, TailwindCSS, and TypeScript. Source code at https://github.com/alexkates/wordlol Running at https://wordlol.vercel.app/ Introduction Over the past few months, Wordle has nearly consumed all of our Twitte...
    • How to Trigger an AWS Lambda Function from an S3 Put Event
      1/16/2022•2,514 views•4 min read•0 likes
      100daysofcode
      developer
      aws
      In this post, we are going to use the AWS CDK to build an AWS Lambda Function that is triggered from an AWS S3 Put request. All of the code can be found in this repository. Setup We need to run a few commands to set up our CDK app. mkdir how-to-trigg...
    • How to Trigger an AWS Lambda Function from a DynamoDB Stream Event
      1/15/2022•1,123 views•3 min read•2 likes
      aws
      developer
      javascript
      In this post, we are going to use the AWS CDK to build an AWS Lambda Function that triggers from DynamoDB Stream Events. All of the code can be found in this repository. Setup We need to run a few commands to set up our CDK app. mkdir how-to-trigger-...