Victor is a software engineer working on healthcare interoperability, data modelling and complex software systems. He still likes building things.
2026
August 23
Using LLMs to improve language skills
One of the best use-cases of LLMs is to assist in learning. Since today's AI models have essentially been trained on a gigantic corpus of text, there's probably no better fit for learning a topic than language. This is my prompt for leveling up my written German. Note the caveats.
August 17
AI makes code cheaper, not judgement
Trust but verify. Also, strategies for distributed software development in the new world.
2023
August 27, last updated on April 30, 2024
Server-side rendering Fontawesome icons in a Remix.run project
August 26
Running mocha tests in a Remix.run project
August 25
Migrating to Remix.run
March 17
Setup a private npm registry
2022
February 22
Setup port forwarding with hairpin NAT on Mikrotik CCR2004-1G-12S+2XS with dual networks
January 05, last updated on January 26, 2022
Setup postfix on Ubuntu and send emails for failed cron jobs
2021
November 22
How to stop pure functional components from rendering in React.js
November 21
Configure Nginx with SSL as a reverse proxy for a Node.js application
September 08
How to open ports on an Oracle Cloud VM running on Ubuntu 20.04
August 16
Blur video using Openshot
2020
November 16
Building a secure Node.js development environment via containers
October 15
Extracting data from mysql
July 01
War Story - hunting down a memory leak in a C++ application
What looked like a memory leak turned out to be something considerably more interesting.
April 07, last updated on June 04, 2020
IMAP email backup
2019
November 14
Compiling the NVIDIA 415.27 drivers on Linux kernel 5.x
September 17
Continuous integration (CI) with Golang and Jenkins pipelines
August 16
Getting started with Lisp in 2019
July 12, last updated on February 20, 2020
Setting up a raspberry pi 4 home server
June 14, last updated on July 29, 2019
What to expect in a code quality assessment
In the past year or so, I've had to do a couple of code quality assessements and I decided to make my notes public so that I am able to provide a quick reference to prospective clients.
June 08
Docker in 10 minutes
May 06
Connecting to an Oracle database with Golang on Ubuntu
April 04, last updated on August 21, 2020
How to install a php extension from source on Ubuntu, e.g. php_oci
March 16
A quick introduction to Go modules
March 15
Hot-reload Go applications
March 04
How to connect to an Oracle database on Ubuntu
February 26
How to clean up Ubuntu software package repositories
February 09
Teach testing first
There is a well-know testing pyramid that visualizes the effort required for writing tests as one goes higher up. As the title suggests, the premise really is: "Why isn't programming taught with a focus on testing first?" and "Will a focus on testing broaden the tip of the pyramid to make fully automated end-to-end integration testing easier?"
January 16
'Design outside-in, develop inside-out'
When we write software we write it for a reason: "what is this software for?". We can further split this question up into parts: "who will be using this?" and "what data will this operate on/store?". Thus, a successful software product requires a tight feedback loop with whoever/whatever will be using it and a very careful consideration of its data model. Interestingly, both these aspects seem slightly contrary to one another - should one design the data model first or should one mock up the interface as a first step? As this post's title suggests, the answer actually lies in doing both at the same time!
2018
November 01, last updated on November 14, 2018
Copying objects in Javascript
In this article we will look at the various ways an object can be copied in Javascript. We will take a look at both shallow and deep copying. While shallow copying is rather straightforward, deep copying is more tricky. Currently, there is a HTML5 specification for a deep copy algorithm but it is not publically available yet. Until then, use a well-known library. If the source object has a well-known structure either: use JSON serialization and deserialization, or roll your own algorithm for better performance / custom serialization.
October 07
Database integration testing in Java
October 04
The case for single character git commit message prefixes
A while back I came across a really powerful method on writing git commit messages: prefix each commit with a single character to indicate what type of a change it is.
September 26
Local proxy using cntlm
September 16
Clean Code - Notes
September 01
Picking a Javascript library
August 16
Building a simple static site generator using Node.js
April 11
Building a VPN kill switch on Ubuntu using Node.js
March 20
A Node.js MySQL connection pool with promises and async / await
March 11
Immutability vs Data encapsulation
Immutability is an incredible tool for making code easy to reason about. However, it is not a silver bullet and sometimes it is preferable to prioritize data encapsulation over immutabilty.
February 23, last updated on November 04, 2020
Dockerized posgresql with local data storage on Ubuntu
January 03
Upgrading ubuntu to 17.10 from 17.04
2017
November 15
Building a voice assistant to control music
October 06
The merge request checklist
August 21
Writing an application in React using Redux for state management
August 20
Create a SaaS in 18 steps
May 19, last updated on January 24, 2019
Node.js Express api development security checklist
May 02
Creating a reader interaction widget
March 27
Questions to ask at the end of a technical interview
January 04
Things to do after installing/upgrading ubuntu
2016
October 24
Node.js callbacks vs promises vs generators vs async-await
October 12
Integration testing asynchronously created mongoose models using mocha
September 11
Using gmail with mutt
August 03, last updated on February 27, 2018
Setting up a mail server and client on Ubuntu using postfix and mutt
August 02
Installing the latest Node.js on Ubuntu via nvm
May 17
SoCraTes Day - Conference Notes
May 03
Building a simple neural net in Java
2015
December 29, last updated on June 05, 2017
Nginx, Node.js and HTTPS via Let's encrypt
October 23
Ubuntu tips and tricks
September 29
Detecting a permgen memory leak in a Java JBoss application
August 26
Load testing using Tsung
August 24
Useful git commands
April 04, last updated on April 07, 2017
Setting up multiple websites with Nginx, Node.js and MySQL
2004
January 15
Get Linux
An article way back from 2004 expounding on the beauty that is Linux.

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