I was pretty excited that Zabbix 5.0 LTS came out, so I decided to redo my whole install. One of the main reasons I use Zabbix is to monitor website homepage up or down status. This time, I decided to make a template. Below I’ll detail how and what I did so you can make your own template for your own websites. (more…)

A full calendar, hours on the phone, work into the night and a never-ending deluge of emails: the typical Dev Manager’s life. Time is precious and scarce. It’s also very fluid. You’re jumping from thing to thing; meetings get pushed and calls are rushed. It’s not ideal, but it seems to be the only way you can get to all of the things that need your attention. (more…)

If you’re not familiar with Plan 9 from Bell Labs, its about time you did. Plan 9 is one of the first GUI operating systems, the precursor to most of the experiences that we now take for granted. I knew a bit about it, but I wanted to actually use it. And, not having a computer laying around from the 1980s anymore, the next best thing was a virtual machine. (more…)

This is part of a series of articles from the retired The Dev Manager website. It was called The Dev Manager Crash Course. Looking for entry two? Click here (more…)

This is part of a series of articles from the retired The Dev Manager website. It was called The Dev Manager Crash Course. Looking for entry one? Click here (more…)

This is the beginning of a series of articles from the retired The Dev Manager website. It was called The Dev Manager Crash Course. (more…)

You’ve been there. The Zoom meeting is over and then everyone looks awkward at the bottom corner of the screen as they desperately try to leave. Nikki Glaser will show you what I’m talking about if you don’t know. Now, if you’re using Alfred (like you should be on Mac), you can easily leave the meeting. (more…)

When you’re working on a project with a tight timeline, it can seem really attractive to buy pre-made software to save time. But, there are a number of problems and pitfalls to be aware of before you do this. (more…)

It can be hard to take a full-height screenshot of a website. Luckily, Chrome gives us a tool to do this - no more stitching images together. Let’s see how… (more…)

Please stop using assertDatabaseHas in Laravel. There are many reasons why this is bad, and there are better options available. Let’s find out why. (more…)