"Ping" a specific port on a remote host One of the things you'll find yourself needing to do is check if a port on a remote host is open or closed. This is usually helpful when troubleshooting an issue such as if when a service is gone offline and you want to
devops Switching from Vagrant to Docker as my development environment Why I switched from using Vagrant to Docker in development
monitoring Site Monki: Automating website uptime monitoring site monki automates website uptime monitoring, ssl checks, domain and cron monitoring
code You'll love Golang's approach to error handling One of the marks of a great app is good error handling. Ever since I started my programming career, this is something I have always grappled with. For instance you
The developer imposter syndrome I met a developer friend at one of the dev meetups. As usual, we developers like to delve deep into all the cool shiny tools we are using and discuss the latest trending topics. We like to show up that we are smart and
5 Timeless dev skills every developer must know - HTML/CSS: The web has grown and is still growing since the internet became the best thing since sliced bread. As a developer you will need knowledge of HTML & CSS to build simple and complex web (and these days mobile & desktop)
Building USSD apps What is USSD and why should you care part 1? Dial *165# to access mobile money menu. You have seen that on billboards, radio Ads, SMS promos, TV commercials, web
My solo trip to Jinja and the River Nile So over the weekend, I travelled to Jinja on a solo trip. I have always wanted to do this actually. When I heard that the iconic Jinja Nile bridge was
code Deploying a Django App to Heroku So you have developed your new shinny app. It's time to show the world what you have got. But it quickly hits you that development, deployment and production are completely
code What I am learning Q3 2018: Docker, Kubernetes, Golang and RabbitMQ This year got off a good start; I changed jobs and I am almost half way my target of jogging 100km! Speaking of jogging, it's been really hard to make
africa's talking I took an epic 10 minute voice call survey On a random Friday morning while quietly sipping my tea, my phone rang at about 10am. The phone number was a landline unknown to me, so I hesitantly picked up the call thinking that it's perhaps my bank, a utility company calling me. It
life Ugandan drivers will dodge traffic jam at all costs Uganda is notoriously known for terrible roads and consequently heavy traffic jams. Kampala specifically is worse being the capital of the country. And if you hope to have any level
code Setting up Django environment using Pyenv and Virtualenv Python is a great language for general programing, but when combined with the Django framework, Web development in Python becomes a breeze. But managing different python versions and packages can
sysadmin Kill process running under certain port So you have started your django or Node JS or Ruby on Rails development server. Then you make some code changes that require the dev server reboot. Usually the server automatically watches your code files and reboot by itself, but sometimes, It doesn't. You
code Using Wireshark to troubleshoot http GET and POST requests in your code Wireshark has been a beloved swiss knife used by Sys Admins to troubleshoot network problems for years. So, it's not surprising that most devs don't know the magic powers behind
life Transitioning between jobs and what's for 2018 At the beginning of this year, I quit my job at Uganda's .ug registry where I had worked for the last two years. After my trip from China, I knew
life My home workspace tour Having a great workspace has been a long long dream of mine. Ask my wife or any of my close friends, they will tell you of how I have always
life Go east young man Growing up, I always heard stories of Family and friends going to "outside countries". This usually meant people were travelling to western countries most notably the U.S,
life Am sick and tired of Kampala's public transport For years, I've resisted the urge to get private means of transportation. I have held the view that owning is expensive (buy and maintain) and contributes to urban congestion aka
Planning to hold my first Webinar Slow and expensive internet in Uganda and most of Africa has and continues to thwart us from connecting and sharing knowledge and ideas easily. While most users are familiar with
Using Sensu for System monitoring, incident management and alerting So it's roughly 3 weeks ago that I wrote that I was doing some research on system monitoring and incident management system for the infrastructure I manage. Monitoring is a
cloud What I am learning: System monitoring, incident management and alerting Last week I gave a talk on DevOps at the Facebook developer circles at Outbox. I was impressed by the reception and interest I got from the attendees. Because Devops
code Some special character names "#" is not a hashtag and "*" is not star! Knowing special characters and their names is important when programmers are communicating with themselves. Or even when you
life Uganda is a rich country, it's just unoptimized Over the weekend with friends, I had a memorable road trip to the land of my ancestors. East of Uganda is a beautiful countryside endowed with natural resources, good weather,
