Before I used PaperMod as my website’s base theme, I had it using Hugo-clarity. Both these themes couldn’t be further apart from one another. When I look back today, I still wonder why I chose Clarity, maybe it was the fact that it came with an abundant feature-set, of which I probably only used like 50% or less. But it was my first experience with Hugo. Back then, I used Disqus to enable users to comment on my posts. It was easy to get started with in that theme, there was built-in support. All I had to do was link my Disqus account, which I created just for this purpose. ...

If you are reading this post, you might already be wondering what theme I use. It is not a secret. I use Hugo-PaperMod for this blog. It is a minimalistic looking theme which just so happens to be pretty feature rich at the same time. Hugo-PaperMod offers you three modes in which you can display the landing page of your blog. Regular Mode Home Info Mode Profile Mode I appreciate these modes as they are. But I wanted something different. If you have seen my landing page, you already know where I am going with this. ...

I wanted to give a shout-out to a GitHub Repository that I came across, which hosted some custom CSS for modifying the look of PaperMod by a tiny bit. I thought I’d try it and hence the shout-out. Checkout hugo-PaperMod-Mod. The styles include: thumbnails sidebar table of contents wider posts on landing page

So you have started using Hugo for your website or blog or whatever you have built, and you came across something called a Shortcode. If Hugo were a programming language, shortcodes would be sub-routines, or reusable units of code. - Eakan But the truth is, Hugo is not a programming language. It is a static site generator that generates content based on markdown files. Markdown syntax is pretty limited. So how do you make your website as attractive and engaging as any other modern website with these limitations? ...

Background I have been wondering how to simplify the concept of handshakes - not the human handshakes; I’m talking about the computer ones, like the ones that happen between a server and a client when establishing a connection over HTTPS. So I went reading online to see if the content was digestible for everyone - including beginners. I couldn’t find a simple diagrammatic representation, so I thought maybe this is my chance to draw them and help others understand it at a glance. To be fair, it isn’t that straightforward to jump into discussing TLS handshakes, without learning about a few key terms. So I am certain that I will update this post with more information later on ...

Conflicts are healthy Did the title of this section, set off alarm bells in your head? Maybe it depends on your experience with conflicts. In the early days of my career, I thought conflicts were unhealthy, and I used to get into conflicts a lot because as an engineer, I had my opinion on solving a problem a certain way. And obviously, my way was the best way because I had done my reading and compared other solutions and made my decision based on that research. However, there were many other alternative solutions that I hadn’t considered, simply because I wasn’t aware of them. But as an inexperienced, young engineer who was concerned about proving his point, I was blind to the better alternatives! ...

Background As a relatively senior engineering manager, I have been transforming into a less technical person over time. The reason being, I am in charge of two fantastic teams that both have excellent engineers. I generally rely on the technical leads of the respective teams to own the technical aspects of their domains and try to interfere as little as possible. I do this to empower them to take more ownership and learn to be accountable. After all, it is humanly impossible to be everywhere at the same time. I build my teams based on trust, psychological safety and accountability. However, I do review their technical proposals and other documents or design diagrams etc. and I challenge them by asking questions. I have never had to tell them what is right or wrong so far, and I don’t think that I’ll ever need to do that either because our hiring process is good enough to filter out problem candidates. I give them the feedback they need at the time they need it, covering their blind-spots when necessary. ...

Background I grew up as a third culture kid, born in India and raised in the United Arab Emirates. At a very early age, I had encounters with some racist kids, often while in a school bus in the lane next to mine. This altered my perception of myself, created an inferiority complex when compared to the instigators of the racist incident, and I felt helpless and trapped. The problem in the UAE was not a lack of diversity. ...

Starting as an engineering manager As an engineering manager, you already have numerous responsibilities. At an early stage in your engineering manager career, you could even feel overwhelmed by the number of things you have to know. Some of them include Mentoring and coaching your direct reports who are individual contributors Setting strategic objectives for the team and the individuals Performance management - performance improvement programs Recruiting the right engineers for your team, squad, and organization Preparing promotion packs for your engineers Liaising with the people team to ensure benefits and compensation are attractive enough for bringing in new talent Working with Product and Peers to ensure delivery is smooth and dependencies are communicated and coordinated It doesn’t end there. ...

What is Homebrew? Homebrew is a package manager for MacOS and Linux systems. Although it is called homebrew, the command is shortened to brew. The thing about homebrew is that every command and option sticks to the theme of brewing. I haven’t gone and dug out why this is the case, but I found it amusing. As I had used homebrew a couple of times when setting up my work laptop and now setting up my own, I got curious and wanted to know what options the command accepted. The brewery terminology also was intriguing. ...