Hi, thanks for visiting!

My name's Sam Kelleher, and I am a Senior Full-Stack Web Developer / Software Architect based in London. This website mostly contains a sample of work from my portfolio, tips, and best practicies for building web applications, and reviews + photos of food and hotels in London.

All Aside posts

Statement on the UK exit from the EU 🇪🇺

I believe in inclusivity, openness, outwardness, a forward thinking future for all.

Brexit is the opposite of that.

The entire referendum was propagated by manipulating social networks for spreading targeted misinformation paid for by unknown foreign actors. What might not be obvious to those outside the UK, is that most mainstream media providers have all sewn an anti-immigration narrative for several years broadcasting radial right-wing opinions rather than fact based news. Factual misinformation has been promoted without question.

Democracy is an ongoing basis, to treat a non-binding referendum as binding and not give the public the change to reflect based on new information and instead use a flawed vote as a mandate to pursue the worst flavour of Brexit is just madness.

European citizenship is about being part of something greater than just the sum of my own nationality. While the EU is not by any means perfect, it stands as a triumph of human political achievement.

We are better off together than we are alone.

Fortunately I was able to personally retain my freedom of movement and European citizenship due to holding dual citizenship with the UK and Ireland.

GitHub vs BitBucket

When it comes to hosting our source-code, many platforms can cover the basic of hosting a central GIT repository for us.

GitHub charges per repository, while BitBucket charges by contributor.

Use BitBucket if:

  • You only work individually or in a small team (5 people or less).
  • You wish to have private repositories.
  • You wish to work with a large number of repositories.

Use GitHub if:

  • You project is open source.
  • You only have a small number of private repositories.
  • Many people will work on a repository (5 people or above).

As for the rest of the differentiation features, they're both pretty similar, with the one exception that GitHub is universally recognised and there are many tools, such as CI services, that can plug straight into GitHub by using your account; although BitBucket is gaining notability in this regard.

I do wonder about the long term viability of BitBucket offering private repositories, as surely the cost of doing so will increase over time - with storage costs in particular. Then again, the same applies for GitHub and its generous hosting of public repos.

At the end of the day you get what you pay for, there are a handful of good reliable paid for services that can offer the best of both worlds - such as Codebase HQ which has git and project hosting for a small monthly fee, they charge by tiers of storage space used, users and number of projects - but each project can have unlimited repositories!

Who is the voice of Google UK TTS engine?

The lady speaks with such authority an demand it demands me of voice of Corbin Dallas's' mother in the Fifth Element.

Where else do computers speak with regional accents in films? And not the universal one voice fits all as depicted in Star Trek.

Picking the right client

So many companies now days forget that the two-way relationship that exists between client and worker. Weather that worker be an employee, freelancer or contractor worker;they pick the client as much as the client picks them. When they fail to realize this, it usually results in them being demand and expectant of you;in return for nothing. They won’t pitch to you as to why you should not work for them, another client, or their competitor.

As your career and level of experience grow, picking the right client becomes essential. Not only will there be demand for your particular skill set, which necessitates you choosing who to work for, but working for the wrong client can be so disastrous for you as well as the client.

Beta releases should always be private

Consumers install beta quality test software, normally intended for developers, and then have a poor first-impression, and often get stuck with technical issues, then blame the company for releasing ‘bad’ software - regardless of what the final product is like.

Considering the warnings and notices given during the download process I find it strange that many users get so angry and surprised when the beta software is crashy and unreliable.