Blog
2024
2023
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Cache NVM Install on CircleCI
Avoid nvm install errors and improve build times by caching nvm install on CircleCI.
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Fix Route53 DNS Propagation Errors After Domain Transfer
Mismatched DNSSEC settings after a domain transfer to Route53 can cause DNS propagation issues.
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Audit CircleCI Contexts for Exposed Secrets
CircleCI announced a security incident on January 4, 2023. They recommend rotating all secrets stored on the system. circleci-audit can help!
2022
2021
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Create or Update Pull Request Comments in GitHub
Describes a simple solution to create or update GitHub pull request comments.
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How to fix "No Suggestions" in iPhone Photos app
If the search tab on your iPhone Photos app says 'No Suggestions. Connect your iPhone to power overnight to continue scanning', try this.
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Specifying the aws-sdk version in aws-cdk NodejsFunction
How to specify the aws-sdk package version in an aws-cdk NodejsFunction lambda. Useful when you need a newer, or specific version of the aws-sdk package in your Lambda code.
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Restoring the Jest cache in Circle CI
How to use the jest cache to speed up jest tests on CircleCI. Save and restore jest cache in your CircleCI jobs.
2020
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Make pino Log Messages Appear with the Correct Status in Datadog
How to correctly display the log level (status) in Datadog when using the pino logger. By default all messages are marked as 'info'-level.
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How To Fix CircleCI DockerHub Too Many Requests Errors
How to avoid DockerHub rate limiting from CircleCI jobs by authenticating docker image pulls. Instructions to avoid Error response from Daemon: toomanyrequests: Too Many Requests.
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Adding Typescript Types to Github's GraphQL API
A tutorial to generate Typescript types for Github GraphQL API v4 using graphql-codegen. Complete with example code and repository.
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Installing Datadog AWS Integration using AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK)
The simplest way to use AWS Cloud Development Kit (aws-cdk) to install the Datadog AWS Integration.
2019
2018
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Fixing Sennheiser Wireless HD1 "Call Ended" Voice Prompt when Using Zoom
How to stop Sennheiser Wireless HD1 Headphones from triggering the Call Ended voice prompt when using meeting software such as Zoom, Skype or Google Hangouts.
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Building a Scaleable Protocol Buffers/gRPC Artifact Pipeline
This article describes the problems Ibotta faced an initial pipeline and how our new implementation significantly decreased time to ship Protocol Buffers & gRPC artifacts to production.
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Encouraging Development Best Practices with Gamification
An in-depth discussion of how Ibotta gamified following best practices among new developers by introducing a Scorecard badge.
2017
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Understanding Github PR Merge Options
In this talk, Ben Limmer helps to improve your understanding of common git and github concepts. Topics of discussion include the two schools of thought surrounding history in github, the three options for integrating GitHub PRs (create a merge commit, squash and merge, rebase and merge), gotchas with rewriting history in git, and helpful git commands (add by patch, git revert and git bisect). A talk given at the Ibotta Technology Lunch and Learn series.
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Creating a macOS Sierra 10.12.4 VirtualBox Guest
Instructions to create a macOS Sierra 10.12.4 VirtualBox guest. Includes information about the gIOScreenLockState freeze and how to work around it.
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Upgrading Ember Apps
Learn how to upgrade your ember-cli ember application and dependencies with this talk from the Ember.js Denver Meetup January 2017.
2016
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Ember + Travis CI Broken Builds
If you're getting command ember not found with ember or ember-cli on travis, this is how to fix it.
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Ember Composable Helpers and Ember Wormhole
A lightning talk about Ember 2 features, specifically composability (ember-composable-helpers) and using Ember Wormhole to produce a fullscreen confirm dialog. This talk was given at the July 2016 Ember JS Denver Meetup.
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Using TTF fonts with PhantomJS on Ubuntu
How to use TrueType (ttf) fonts with PhantomJS 2 on Ubuntu linux distributions. This article describes how to fix PhantomJS issues with using custom fonts and PDF generation.
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Building Realtime Apps with EmberJS and WebSockets - GEMConf May Talk
This talk from GEMConf in May 2016 discusses how AJAX differs from WebSockets and how the technology can be used to implement rich real-time experiences. It also produces a live demo using EmberJS.
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Fix Travis CI stalled builds with EmberJS and Ember CLI
Ember CLI Travis CI builds suddenly broken? You aren't alone. Here's how to work around it.
2015
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ember-cli-deploy 0.5.x + node helpers + hipchat
Now that ember-cli-deploy 0.5.x is live, an update on existing projects and an exciting announcement about a plugin to notify HipChat about deploys and activations.
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Convert legacy CoffeeScript to ES2015 Javascript easily (ish)
How to convert CoffeeScript files over to ES6 (ES2015) compatible Javascript files using tools to make the process easier. You need to use BabelJS or another transpiler to be backwards compatible with older browsers.
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An Introduction to Testing in Ember.JS
How to write tests for an EmberJS Application using ember-cli-mocha. Explains the difference between unit, integration and acceptance tests and how to write each.
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Slow Ember CLI builds and Sass @extends methods
Slow ember cli builds can be caused by use of sass @extends directives.
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Deploying a Location-Aware EmberJS Application
How to deploy a location-aware EmberJS application using ember-cli-deploy and a simple ExpressJS server.
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Install an Ember Addon from GitHub
This post explains how to install an Ember Addon from GitHub, instead of a versioned release from NPM.
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Introducing ember-cli-server-variables add-on
An explanation of the motivation behind the Ember CLI add-on ember-cli-server-variables and an example of how to use it in your application. Also, some tips on developing your first Ember CLI add-on.
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Migrating a CoffeeScript Ember Application to Ember CLI
A high-level tutorial of how to migrate a global CoffeeScript EmberJS application over to Ember-CLI. This post includes info on moving from a Brunch build system to Ember-CLI's Broccoli build system and migrating CoffeeScript Mocha and Chai tests to Ember CLI.
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Running Ember CLI Tests on Jenkins CI
This post will walk you through running Ember CLI testem tests running with Jenkins CI.
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Migrating to Ember CLI at Ibotta
A meta post with links to helpful resources and examples to migrate a project to Ember CLI.
2014
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What to Do in Computer Science School to Get a Job
(Almost) every computer science students wants a job after school, but many don't know where to start. These slides are from a talk given by Ben Limmer to the Computer Science as a Field of Work and Study class for Computer Science students at University of Colorado at Boulder.
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Ember.computed.* is your friend!
Ember.computed is powerful. It has methods that reduce boilerplate code and increase readability.
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Lock Down Your Bower Components, Folks
A call for everyone to investigate their bower.json configurations to ensure they know what's being deployed to production
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Getting Started with EmberJS
Key EmberJS concepts to help you get up to speed with the framework. Topics include Handlebars, Ember computed properties not firing, Ember Observers and general advice when looking for help.
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Guard + Pry + Mac OS X = :-(
If you hit a pry breakpoint within Guard on OS X and it's eating your characters, here's how you fix it.
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ReadyTalk -> Ibotta
Details of Ben Limmer's decision to move from ReadyTalk to Ibotta.
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Mac Not Booting to Apple Hardware Test (AHT)? Try this.
Having problems getting your Mac (iMac, Macbook Pro, Macbook Air) to boot into Apple Hardware Test (AHT)? If your Mac won't boot into the hardware test, there's a simple solution you might not have thought of.
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Mocking SWT Image and Display with PowerMockito
How to mock SWT Image and Display classes using JUnit and PowerMockito. Sometimes you need to mock out SWT Images or static calls on the SWT Display object. Cue JUnit and PowerMockito to the rescue!
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Automatically Publish to Sonatype with Gradle and Travis CI
How to automatically publish SNAPSHOT and RELEASE artifacts to Sonatype (Nexus) using Gradle and Travis CI. This approach utilizes the gradle-nexus-plugin from Benjamin Muschko.
2013
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AirPlay suddenly not working? Try this.
Airplay suddenly not working? If your Mac will suddenly not allow you to connect to your AirPlay speakers, try this. It always fixes the issue (in my experience) and does not require a restart.
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Automatically Publish Javadoc to GitHub Pages with Travis CI
How to automatically publish Javadoc documentation to a GitHub Pages (gh-pages) site using Travis-CI, custom scripts and secret environment variables
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Working Around Mac OS X Mavericks ARP Issue
Having issues with Mac OS X Maverick (10.9) and dropping packets when screen sharing or SSH'd? This is an interesting issue, mainly affecting corporate networks and can be worked around using this script. It works by adjusting the net.link.ether.inet.arp_unicast_lim setting, which tells OS X to send the ARP request the first time it doesn't find a route to host.
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Designing for a Delightful User Experience in an Agile Environment
A guide to building a delightful user experience while in an agile environment. This article was inspired by presentations Ben Limmer saw at BlendConf 2013, Lean UX, and his experience at ReadyTalk.
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BlendConf 2013 Follow-Up
A follow-up about the 2013 BlendConf in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
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En Route to BlendConf 2013
A description of Ben Limmer's trip to BlendConf 2013 in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
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New Jekyll Bootstrap Website
A description of Ben Limmer's new website written using Jekyll Bootstrap.
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Squash Your Commits
Why you should squash your in-between development commits in Git before pushing them to main
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Denver New Tech - March 2013
A writeup of Ben Limmer's favorite presentations at the March 2013 Denver New Tech Meetup held at Galvanize in Denver, Colorado, USA.
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Making the Internet Suck Less
A write-up of Ben Limmer's hosts project to block pop-ups, banner ads, tracking cookies, spyware and more. Available on Ben Limmer's GitHub page.
2011
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Shamefully Overdue Update Post
A blog post by Ben Limmer about his new job at ReadyTalk and his involvement with CU Boulder as an alum.
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Digitally illiterate kids and FOSS in schools
A blog post about Ben Limmer's report on why public schools in the United States should adopt Free and Open Source (FOSS) software to save money while producing digitally literate students.
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Google Page Speed
A blog post by Ben Limmer about Google Page Speed, a new Google Labs experimental feature that will run an automated cross-browser speed test and report back how to increase the speed of your site.
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Feature in the Daily Camera
A description of Ben Limmer's feature in the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, Colorado, USA
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New Site Design
A blog post about Ben Limmer redesigning his website
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HCCPD Final Writeup
A blog post by Ben Limmer about his Human Centered Computing Professional Development (HCCPD) class at CU Boulder
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Distinguished Senior Awards Banquet
A description of the awards ceremony for Ben Limmer receiving the Distinguished Senior Graduate for Computer Science at CU Boulder in Boulder, Colorado, USA
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Senior Project: DONE!
A blog post about Ben Limmer completing his senior project at CU Boulder, done in conjunction with Gold Systems in Boulder, Colorado, USA.
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Object Oriented Analysis and Design Final Project
A showcase of LaunchPad, a Ruby on Rails project completed for an Object Oriented Analysis and Design course at CU Boulder. The project was worked by Ben Limmer and Zac Clark
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Final XNA 4 Project
A showcase of Ben Limmer's XBOX 360 programming class final project at CU Boulder
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Entrepreneurship Advocacy at CU Boulder
A call for Boulder, Colorado, USA technology companies to get more involved with the CU Boulder Computer Science program
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Graduation
A blog post inviting friends an family to Ben Limmer's 2011 graduation from CU Boulder. He was recognized with the Outstanding graduate in Computer Science award, CU Engineering Outstanding Graudate for Service and Magna Cum Laude.
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Looking for a job or summer internship?
A call for applicants for 2011 ReadyTalk summer interns
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Job Search Update: Finished!
A blog post by Ben Limmer updating readers about his acceptance of a job at ReadyTalk in Denver, Colorado, USA
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Domino Award: Call for Entries
A call for entries for the 2011 Domino Award at CU Boulder
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startups2students 2011 update
A wrap-up blog post by Ben Limmer containing links to videos of the 2011 startups2students event at CU Boulder
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Long time, no talk!
A blog post by Ben Limmer about projects being worked in March, 2011 at CU Boulder