The Shift
In recent years, applications have become bloated and extremely complex. With the advent of Javascript frontend frameworks like React and Vue, we have essentially doubled or tripled the workload, by creating essentially two or more isolated syst
Navigating the Java Upgrade: A Business Owner's Guide to Modernisation
You have a business running on a legacy Java system and you need to upgrade. A bunch of questions come to mind: What is a project upgrade?What’s the upgrade process? How much will it cost?
An approach to instant Java upgrades
A very good friend of mine, Tomas Votruba created Rector, a command line tool for instant upgrades and automated refactoring in PHP. 
What are coding standards and how can we use them?
You may have heard of a bunch of terms thrown around like, static analysis, Rector, Easy Coding Standards and Phpstan. But what are they, what do they mean and how can we use them?  Firstly, static analysis, refers to the proces
Why I use ArrayCollections over arrays?
We all should know by now that array are terrible for typing we can create a single array containing, an object, string, int and boolean, like so: $array = [ new Quote(quote: 'That\'s all any of us are: amateur
My Journey Into The World of Tech
Let's be honest for a moment. I don't mean this as a cliche statement to then go on to express something that, will either make me look good, or to emphasise a point. I mean it, let's be genuinely honest, I got int
What the HTMX!
No, HTMX is not a dirty version of HTML. Once upon a time, while down the youtube tech rabbit hole, I came across a video by Maximilian Schwarzmüller, referring to some dark and d
How I use the doctrine ORM QueryBuilder
When I started out using Symfony I was frustrated at the lack of instruction on how to achieve an objective, unfortunately for the most part this is still true, I love Symfony but I do feel like it's now lagging behind in instruction and event f
The Utter Bullshit of Management Methodologies
All of us have probably been in that rather painful situation in a call "Do you have any questions or anything to add?" asks the Scrum Master in earnest, hoping that this time someone, anyone might have something constructive to contribute,
PHP Legacy code: Management edition
Do you have, or work for company that has a legacy codebase, if you have one or more of the following then, my condolences, you do: PHP version 5.3 to 7.0  Lack of documentation and/or applicatio
Artificial Intelligence: Can We Regulate Pandora's Box?
In the midst of cries from the founding fathers of artificial intelligence, warning us all of the imminent and potentially apocalyptic dangers of this unprecedented technology.The architects predict the extinction of t
Keeping it simple... or not
In recent months I've become astounded, even flabbergasted at the continuous trudge toward complexity and the sheer, if not brazen, nay, arrogant lack of value placed on simplicity. To my mind this is shooting one
Impossible business case
Yes, Ok. We get it! There is no business case for clean code and/or refactoring. Try to explain the benefits of converting to php configs to a muggle (none tech people) and witness the blank stare of unequivocal hatred and disbelief. Therefo
IT - A mentality problem
In my experience, most code bases are outdated, disorganised, disregarding of convention and/or code quality. Because from the perspective of management, these are nice to have options, unaware of the huge cost in terms of time and money ass
Easy, cheap, good, working, free and now!
It seems to me that the wave of free usage platforms with an advert based profit model, has done far more harm than good. Look at the nearly endless array of awesome and powerful, free tools that we have at our disposal as developers today f
How stupid smart are you?
I'm tired of some assumptions made by developers (juniour and senior). This issue effects large and small alike. For example, the assumption that if you are in a certain location then you will want to have the application in the local langua