Spotify has just launched their open source tool for building developer portals. It is one of the most exciting projects I’ve seen in a while due to its enormous potential for transforming how other engineering teams work together. https://github.com/spotify/backstage To some observers, it may seem odd that a music company is launching a best-in-class developer portal. But if you dig deeper, you’ll find that since the very beginning, Spotify has been known for its agile, autonomous engineering culture.

Have you ever experienced the dreaded “Failed to load device_classes.xml” error when using OpenZWave? While the error message appears to be quite self-explanatory, I always thought I was making some mistake when mapping docker volumes. After all, this happens on the official official Docker image. After some research, it turns out that the official image is missing two important files that allow OpenZWave to correctly configure a new device when it is included by the controller.

If you’re into IoT, you’ve probably heard of PlatformIO - an integrated development environment for IoT similar to the Arduino IDE. A lot of the IoT devices run on the low-cost ESP8266 chip. It can be found on a range of applications, from power meters to switches, sensors and even LED controllers. They are very popular in the DIY community but also commercially available in the form of ready-to-use products and development kits from several manufacturers, such as IteadStudio, makers of the Sonoff product line, Wemos, known for its D1 Mini and MagicHome LED Controllers, to name a few.

Choosing the right DD-WRT firmware version for a router has never been an easy task. After the much anticipated v24 stable release got out (v24 SP1, around 9 years ago), the community continued to push for new features, support for different models and improved performance. But when all you had were 54Mbps (802.11g), wireless tuning was crucial. If any build got out with the promise of increased wireless speeds, everyone would upgrade immediately.

Have you ever wanted to send a note to yourself while browsing on your iOS device so that you can keep track of a great article or website? Perhaps you don’t have time to read it right away but you have to read it sometime. You’ve tried Evernote, Bear and Pocket but you really just want something very simple on your favorite everyday inbox. In the past, I would tap the Gmail app icon, set the To to myself and hit send.