Blog Posts from 2024

Getting Started with Docker for .NET Developers

12/30/20244 min readdotnet

A beginner's guide for .NET developers on how to containerize an ASP.NET Core application using Docker, covering the Dockerfile, build process, and running the container.

Securing Applications with Amazon Cognito

12/28/20244 min readaws

A practical guide to getting started with Amazon Cognito. Learn how to use User Pools and Identity Pools to add user sign-up, sign-in, and secure access to your web and mobile applications.

A Look Back at AI in 2024: The Year of Agents and Multimodality

12/20/20244 min readai

2024 was a pivotal year for artificial intelligence. We review the biggest trends, from the rise of autonomous AI agents and multimodal models to the maturation of AI-powered developer tools.

AWS Lambda vs. Fargate: Which is Right for Your Containers?

11/30/20244 min readaws

A detailed comparison between running containers on AWS Lambda and AWS Fargate, helping you decide which service is the best fit for your workload's scalability, performance, and cost needs.

Windsurf Editor: The AI-First IDE Taking On Cursor in 2024

11/20/20243 min readdeveloper-tools

An in-depth look at Windsurf, the new AI-powered code editor from Codeium. Discover how it compares to Cursor and Copilot, and whether it's the future of AI-assisted development.

.NET Structured Logging with Serilog

11/15/20244 min readdotnet

Learn how to implement powerful structured logging in your .NET applications using Serilog, with examples for enriching log events and writing to sinks like the console and files.

Windsurf Editor: The AI-First IDE Taking On Cursor in 2024

10/30/20244 min readdeveloper-tools

An in-depth look at Windsurf, the new AI-powered code editor from Codeium. Discover how it compares to Cursor and Copilot, and whether it's the future of AI-assisted development.

Python Asyncio Deep Dive: Understanding await and gather

10/25/20244 min readpython

A deep dive into Python's asyncio library, explaining the fundamentals of asynchronous programming, the event loop, and how to use `await` and `asyncio.gather` for concurrent I/O operations.

Orchestrating Serverless Workflows with AWS Step Functions

10/10/20244 min readaws

Learn how to move beyond simple Lambda functions and orchestrate complex, multi-step workflows in a reliable and visual way using AWS Step Functions.

CI/CD for Infrastructure: Exploring AWS CDK Pipelines

09/25/20244 min readaws

Automate the deployment of your AWS CDK applications by creating a self-mutating CI/CD pipeline using AWS CDK Pipelines, CodeCommit, and CodeBuild.

Python Project Structure Best Practices

09/18/20244 min readpython

Learn how to structure your Python projects for scalability and maintainability. This guide covers a standard layout including source directories, tests, and configuration files.

.NET Unit Testing Best Practices with xUnit and Moq

09/10/20244 min readdotnet

Elevate your testing game by learning best practices for writing clean, maintainable, and effective unit tests in .NET using popular frameworks like xUnit and Moq.

Mastering AWS IAM Roles: A Practical Guide

08/30/20244 min readaws

Understand the power of IAM Roles in AWS by exploring the most common use cases, from granting EC2 instances access to S3 to enabling cross-account access.

Python Data Classes vs. Pydantic: Which Should You Use?

08/25/20244 min readpython

A detailed comparison between Python's built-in Data Classes and the powerful Pydantic library to help you decide which is best for your data modeling and validation needs.

Automating AWS with EventBridge Scheduler

08/10/20244 min readaws

Learn how to replace traditional cron jobs with the more powerful and serverless AWS EventBridge Scheduler to trigger Lambda functions, ECS tasks, and more on a recurring schedule.

Mastering S3 Presigned URLs: A Secure Way to Share Objects

07/30/20244 min readaws

Learn how to securely grant temporary access to private S3 objects by generating presigned URLs for both uploading and downloading files using Python and Boto3.

.NET Dependency Injection Explained: A Practical Guide

07/25/20244 min readdotnet

A practical guide to understanding and using the built-in dependency injection container in .NET, covering service lifetimes, constructors, and best practices.

Building Event-Driven Architectures with AWS Lambda

07/10/20245 min readaws

Explore the power of event-driven architecture on AWS by connecting services like S3, SQS, and EventBridge to AWS Lambda functions for scalable and resilient systems.

Modern Python Dependency Management: Pip vs. Poetry vs. PDM

06/30/20244 min readpython

A 2024 guide to Python dependency management, comparing the classic Pip/venv with modern tools like Poetry and PDM to help you choose the right workflow for your project.

Fine-Tuning LLMs with Amazon Bedrock: A Practical Guide

06/25/20244 min readaws

Learn how to customize foundation models for your specific tasks by fine-tuning them with your own data using Amazon Bedrock, and when to choose fine-tuning over RAG.

5 Practical AWS Cost Optimization Strategies That Actually Work

06/10/20245 min readaws

Go beyond the basics and learn five practical, high-impact strategies for reducing your AWS bill, including right-sizing, storage lifecycle policies, and leveraging serverless.

Getting Started with Amazon Bedrock and Python

05/30/20244 min readaws

An introductory guide to Amazon Bedrock, showing you how to use Python and Boto3 to interact with powerful foundation models like Anthropic's Claude for text generation tasks.

Advanced Python Logging for Production Systems

05/25/20244 min readpython

Go beyond basic print statements and learn how to implement robust, structured, and configurable logging in your Python applications using the built-in logging module.

IaC in 2024: Terraform vs. AWS CDK

05/10/20244 min readdevops

An objective comparison between two leading Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools, Terraform and the AWS CDK. Learn the pros and cons of each to decide which is right for your team.

VPC Peering vs. Transit Gateway: AWS Networking Explained

04/28/20244 min readaws

A clear comparison between VPC Peering and AWS Transit Gateway to help you decide which service is the right choice for connecting your Amazon VPCs.

Securing Serverless APIs: A Guide to Lambda Authorizers

04/20/20244 min readaws

Learn how to secure your Amazon API Gateway endpoints using AWS Lambda authorizers, with a focus on validating JWTs (JSON Web Tokens) for robust, token-based authentication.

Choosing the Right AWS Database in 2024: RDS vs. DynamoDB vs. Aurora

04/05/20244 min readaws

A comprehensive comparison of AWS's flagship database services—RDS, DynamoDB, and Aurora—to help you choose the perfect database for your application's needs in 2024.

Cursor AI: The Code Editor That Actually Understands Your Codebase

03/28/20247 min readdeveloper-tools

A comprehensive review of Cursor, the AI-first code editor. Discover how it compares to VS Code with Copilot, its killer features, and whether it's worth switching your entire workflow.

.NET Configuration in Depth: A Practical Guide

03/20/20244 min readdotnet

Master the powerful and flexible configuration system in .NET. Learn how to use appsettings.json, environment variables, user secrets, and the options pattern to build robust applications.

The Evolution of Python Type Hints in 2024

03/20/20244 min readpython

From optional comments to a core language feature, explore the journey of Python's type hinting system and how modern features in Python 3.12+ are making code more robust and readable.

5 AWS CDK Best Practices for Scalable Infrastructure

03/12/20244 min readaws

Move beyond the basics and learn five essential best practices for writing clean, scalable, and maintainable AWS CDK applications in 2024.

AI Code Assistants in 2024: Cursor vs. GitHub Copilot

02/25/20244 min readdeveloper-tools

A head-to-head comparison of two leading AI code assistants, Cursor and GitHub Copilot. Discover which tool is best suited for your development workflow in 2024.

Serverless .NET: Building Minimal APIs with .NET 8 on AWS Lambda

02/10/20243 min readdotnet

Explore how to build lightweight, high-performance serverless APIs using .NET 8's Minimal API framework and the Amazon.Lambda.AspNetCoreServer package on AWS Lambda.

A Practical Guide to Python Virtual Environments with venv

02/10/20244 min readpython

Learn the importance of Python virtual environments and master the built-in venv module to manage project-specific dependencies and avoid the dreaded 'dependency hell'.

Understanding AWS IAM Identity Center (Successor to AWS SSO)

01/29/20244 min readaws

A comprehensive guide to AWS IAM Identity Center, the service formerly known as AWS SSO. Learn how it simplifies multi-account access and centralizes user management.

A Guide to Python's init.py

01/15/20244 min readpython

Demystify the purpose of the __init__.py file in Python. Learn how it turns directories into packages and how you can use it to control your package's public API.

Demystifying AWS Lambda Cold Starts: A Deep Dive for 2024

01/15/20243 min readaws

Understand what AWS Lambda cold starts are, why they happen, and explore the latest strategies and features in 2024 to mitigate their impact on your serverless applications.