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Blyth's Blog: A Technical Architect's Musings

Blending Bytes and Balance - Tech Tales with a Twist of Martial Arts, Hobbies, and Family Life

Photo by Agê Barros (https://unsplash.com/@agebarros) on Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/photos/closeup-photo-of-gray-chronograph-watch-Yx1ZkifiHto)

Mastering the 7-Second Rule in Collaborative Problem-Solving

Explore the 7-second rule's transformative impact on group discussions and brainstorming sessions in digital agencies, promoting inclusivity, creativity, and thoughtful participation.
2 Minute Read
Mon, 18th Mar 24
Photo by Jorge Salvador (https://unsplash.com/@jsshotz) on Unsplash - https://unsplash.com/photos/black-metal-frame-in-grayscale-photography-2kh6C-8S1jM

The Iron Triangle: A Developer's Guide to Navigating Constraints

In the world of software development, the Iron Triangle (also known as the Project Management Triangle) serves as a visual metaphor to understand the constraints of project management: scope, time, and cost. For developers, working within these...
2 Minute Read
Mon, 4th Mar 24
Man covered in post-its - Photo by Luis Villasmil on Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/photos/people-sitting-on-chair-with-brown-wooden-table-mlVbMbxfWI4)

The Developer's Guide to Time Management: Mastering the "Four Ds" in a Digital Agency

Discover the power of the 'Four Ds' of time management — Do, Delegate, Defer, Delete — tailored for developers at all levels in digital agencies. From junior coders to senior architects, learn how to enhance productivity, streamline projects, and foster...
3 Minute Read
Tue, 13th Feb 24
Code

Setting Up Optimizely on Aspire: A Developer's Walkthrough

Explore the step-by-step guide to setting up Optimizely with dotnet aspire and C# 8.0, tailored for developers seeking to enhance their digital projects. Dive into my comprehensive walkthrough on the Optimizely Aspire GitHub repository.
2 Minute Read
Wed, 31st Jan 24
Father and Son

Bridging the Gap in Computer Science Education: Teaching My Son Python

Explore how I'm helping my son learn Python to bridge the gap in computer science education. As the head of .NET development at DEPT® and a concerned parent, I understand the importance of equipping our children with essential skills for the future. Join ...
2 Minute Read
Mon, 12th Jun 23
Technical Architect - Photo by Christina@wocintechchat.com on Unsplash - https://unsplash.com/photos/0g-iLtxmMhA

Unlocking Your Potential: My Tips on How Developers Can Become the Best They Can Be

As the head of development at DEPT®, I've seen firsthand that being a great developer means more than just writing clean and efficient code. To truly excel in this field, you must adopt a mindset of continuous improvement, be open to learning new skills...
4 Minute Read
Thu, 30th Mar 23
Sandan

My Journey to Sandan: Reflections on Passing my 3rd Dan Grading in Japanese Jiu-Jitsu

I recently passed my Sandan (3rd Dan) grading in Japanese Jiu-Jitsu, and it was an experience I will never forget. The journey to this point has been a long and challenging one, filled with ups and downs, but ultimately, it was a moment of triumph that...
1 Minute Read
Tue, 28th Mar 23
Gi

Why Martial Arts Can Make You a Better Software Developer

As a software developer, you're always looking for ways to improve your skills, stay focused, and maintain a healthy work-life balance. But have you ever considered the benefits of practicing martial arts? From physical fitness and mental toughness to...
2 Minute Read
Fri, 10th Mar 23
k6 logo on a purple background

Why every web developer should have k6 installed

Discussing the benefits of local load testing, and how k6 can also be used for regression/integration testing
3 Minute Read
Thu, 18th Nov 21
Macbook partially open in the dark

Running Optimizely 12 on a Mac

Now that Optimizely 12 runs on .NET 5 it can be run on a Mac, and with most front enders using Macs, I thought it might be useful to demonstrate the steps on how to get it up and running on a Mac.
1 Minute Read
Wed, 13th Oct 21
Glasses resting on paper pad with technical notes

So what does a Technical Architect do?

The role of a Technical Architect seems to be on of the more fluid roles in a Digital Agency, each Technical Architect has different skills, and each project has different requirements.
1 Minute Read
Sun, 19th Sep 21
Contentful

Default Values in Contentful

Finally default values have been added as an option in Content Models in the Contentful CMS
1 Minute Read
Wed, 8th Sep 21
Wife of a Geek

New site for Wife of a Geek

Also built on Contentful and Azure Cognitive Search
1 Minute Read
Fri, 23rd Jul 21
Contentful

How to open rich text links in a new tab in Contentful.net

Contentful doesn't have an option to choose a target for links in a rich text field (yet), so for now I assume that external links should be opened in a new tab. This is achieved with an IContentRenderer.
4 Minute Read
Thu, 22nd Jul 21
Optimizely

Optimizely (Episerver) Content Cloud Exam - My Tips

After sitting the exam, I thought I would document some of the ways I prepared for the exam, and what I found most useful out of the material.
1 Minute Read
Mon, 28th Jun 21
Epi Certificate

Optimizely (Episerver) Content Cloud Certification

This week I successfully passed my Optimizely (formerly Episerver) Content Cloud certifcation.
1 Minute Read
Thu, 24th Jun 21
Contentful

Improving Contentful Search with Azure Cognitive Search

Contentful does have some basic search functionality, but it is quite limited and quite difficult to implement (at least in .net). So leveraging Contentful webhooks I decided to index the data into Azure Cognitive Search service.
3 Minute Read
Tue, 15th Jun 21
Technical Architect - Photo by Christina@wocintechchat.com on Unsplash - https://unsplash.com/photos/0g-iLtxmMhA

Promoted and Certified

What a busy week
1 Minute Read
Thu, 20th May 21
Contentful

Tagging in Contentful

Contentful have recently introduced tagging, I think this is a really important step forward for the headless CMS.
2 Minute Read
Tue, 20th Apr 21
Brain

Can you have emoji's in URLs?

Can emoji's be used in URLs, page titles and meta data? 🤔😂😂
1 Minute Read
Thu, 8th Apr 21
Air Control Tower

Mediator Design Pattern for CMS builds

My approach to dynamic CMS content using Mediatr (and Automapper)
1 Minute Read
Fri, 19th Feb 21
Epi

Generating testable content in Episerver

A simple episerver project with a couple of basic page types to show how an Initializable Module can be used to generate pages that QA and UAT teams can use during their testing/sign off process. I have used Bogus and Waffle to generate realistic...
1 Minute Read
Mon, 4th Jan 21
nuget logo

My go-to nuget packages

A categorised list of nuget packages that I tend to use in most projects. Covers data access, business logic, and presentation packages.
3 Minute Read
Sat, 12th Dec 20
Epi

Episerver - Initial thoughts

After primarily working with SDL Tridion for the past 5 years (along with Contentful) and prior to that Umbraco. I have recently started working with Episerver, and I wanted to give my initial thoughts on it. After starting the training/certification I...
2 Minute Read
Wed, 25th Nov 20
C# 9.0

C# 9.0 - Blurring the lines between object oriented programming and functional programming

There are two basic types of programming languages, object-oriented and functional, what happens with these worlds collide?
3 Minute Read
Tue, 24th Nov 20
Taurus

Sitemap Driven Load Test

A nice script I put together to do load testing based on the contents of a sitemap.
1 Minute Read
Tue, 27th Nov 18
SDL

SDL Topology Generator

My solution to the writing SDL Web Topology Powershell scripts
1 Minute Read
Wed, 5th Apr 17