Replacing/adding the syntax highlighter on Blogger

As you might have read in previous posts, I added a library to Blogger a long time ago to be able to use a syntax highlighter on code snippets. By default, Blogger does not have this functionality and as I regularly post code snippets I thought this was quite convient.

The library however is no longer supported, there was a bug recently and the embedding of the library is causing some issues with performance as these files are not being cached properly.

So it's time to look for something else, so in this post I'll be replacing my existing syntax highlighter with a new one.

Let's get to it!

Improving my blogs perfomance with WebPageTest - part 1

A few weeks ago I posted about the website performance tool WebPageTest, as there is an overlap between the content I post on this blog and the work I do on the blog itself, I'll combine best of both worlds and try to show how you can use WebPageTest very practically to improve your website performance. 

It will likely take me a few sittings as this type of changes tend to take some time. Let's get started with the initial results:

The above is the WebPageTest score of this blog at the start of this exercise. I'll dig through the analysis, address issues one-by-one and make a before and after comparison. Let's get to work!

Most useful tools: ScrumPoker-online.org - planning poker in remote teams

If you are reading this, I'm making the assumption that you work, have worked or will work in a scrum team at some point in your life. And you can't say scrum without saying planning poker, can you?

We started using an online planning poker tool when going remote during the pandemic, leaving us without a physical planning poker session. At first, we asked the developers and testers to put their estimation in the chat but that means you can see the estimation of your colleagues before yours which leads to biased estimations and might make people less comfortable in giving their actual estimation. So, we looked for a tool and found one - wasn't hard because there are dozens of these types of tools out there. We landed on the super simple, free ScrumPoker-online.org, so allow me to introduce this tool to you. 

As you can see, estimations can be submitted in a reusable online "room". Cards will initially be upside down until everyone submits their estimation.