Software development and its discontentshttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/en-ushttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/home-lab-1/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/home-lab-1/Building a digital fortress with old, refused hardware.Tue, 17 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/that-time-i-locked-myself-out-of-nix/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/that-time-i-locked-myself-out-of-nix/That time I locked myself out of NixOS the night before I was supposed to deploy a project, and fumbled back in.Sat, 20 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/installing-lazyvim-on-nixos/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/installing-lazyvim-on-nixos/After 2 days of on-and-off teeth-gnashing, I FINALLY got it working.Fri, 17 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/building-a-vanilla-node-cli/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/building-a-vanilla-node-cli/Well look, I only used a tool to write a tool for managing how I use a different tool without using any other tools! And then I used only a tool from that tool to test it.Wed, 01 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/recovering-webmentions-after-migrating-to-cloudflare/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/recovering-webmentions-after-migrating-to-cloudflare/Adding to the internet's dogpile of webmention troubleshooting for collecting authentic reactions from online communities.Tue, 23 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/who-moved-my-cookies/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/who-moved-my-cookies/The story of how 3 developers blew 45 minutes investigating where a cookie mysteriously wasn't.Wed, 09 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/blocking-ai-crawlers/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/blocking-ai-crawlers/Or how I gave my Next.js deploy the glowup it deserves. (◕‿◕✿)Thu, 03 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/agentic-ai-workflow-woes/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/agentic-ai-workflow-woes/Expectations clash with reality while trying to turn prompts into workflows.Sun, 27 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/the-thankless-complexity-of-custom-form-validations/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/the-thankless-complexity-of-custom-form-validations/Gripes and gotchas from building custom form validation after hundreds of hours lost to retrofitting library form components, writing and rewriting field validations exactly as clients wanted, and building accessible form field web components at enterprise.Sat, 29 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/a-mid-career-retrospective-of-stores-for-state-management/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/a-mid-career-retrospective-of-stores-for-state-management/Looking back at flux-style stores for modernizing front end applications. A tale of 3 projects, at 3 different businesses.Sun, 24 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/the-dual-nature-of-seniority/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/the-dual-nature-of-seniority/On expectations vs. reality of senior software developer roles, and the unspoken requirement of professional mindreading for navigating politics in senior+ roles.Tue, 09 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/stop-resizing-your-browser-improve-responsive-testing/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/stop-resizing-your-browser-improve-responsive-testing/An in-the-weeds tirade to put an end to the lackluster practice of browser resizing. Use the browser's device mode or a whole range of free tools to improve accuracySun, 19 May 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/error-monitoring-and-bug-triage/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/error-monitoring-and-bug-triage/The invisible and thankless work of determining the right things to fixSat, 02 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/dissecting-the-hell-jest-setup-esm-typescript-setup/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/dissecting-the-hell-jest-setup-esm-typescript-setup/World's most delightful testing framework, held hostage by Node's ESM migration 2023Sun, 31 Dec 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/crossing-the-senior-chasm/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/crossing-the-senior-chasm/Levelling up to senior and beyond: what I wish I knewThu, 26 Oct 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/bug-triage/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/bug-triage/Notes on prioritizing bugs and enhancementsSun, 04 Jun 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/closing-cloning-or-disabling-shadow-dom/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/closing-cloning-or-disabling-shadow-dom/Farcical experiments in seeing if I can turn a web component into not-a-web-component, and I've found answers you don't want to hearSat, 28 Jan 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/maintaining-a-healthy-enough-mindset-through-uncertainty/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/maintaining-a-healthy-enough-mindset-through-uncertainty/How to live down the fear of being firedSat, 03 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/what-time-is-it-in-javascript/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/what-time-is-it-in-javascript/Runtime, Build time, Parsing and ExecutionWed, 23 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/git-rebase-for-preventing-merge-commits/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/git-rebase-for-preventing-merge-commits/How to prevent merge commits when pulling from remote to local, or merging from feature to remote main.Sun, 30 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/things-strong-developers-do-that-drive-their-team-crazy/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/things-strong-developers-do-that-drive-their-team-crazy/After years of nose to the keyboard, you've unlocked a level of ultra-learning you could not have imagined! How can anything be so doable? Why aren't people as good as you? Here are some things you might be doing that make your team dynamic shift for the worse.Thu, 27 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/ask-good-questions-get-unblocked-faster/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/ask-good-questions-get-unblocked-faster/How to find support, when to ask, and what to ask to get help fasterTue, 06 Sep 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/on-levelling-up/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/on-levelling-up/Storytime for your career doldrumsSun, 06 Mar 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/unit-testing-components-in-storybook/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/unit-testing-components-in-storybook/An overview of unit testing with Storybook for components in design systemsWed, 22 Sep 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/storybook-and-chromatic-for-visual-regression-testing/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/storybook-and-chromatic-for-visual-regression-testing/Setting up visual regression testing as part of build pipelinesMon, 20 Sep 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/how-good-am-i/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/how-good-am-i/Just knowing I'm a devFri, 05 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/differential-loading-for-legacy-browser-support-in-angular9/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/differential-loading-for-legacy-browser-support-in-angular9/For those of us who can't let goTue, 21 Jul 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/a-stab-at-performance-testing-with-intersection-observer/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/a-stab-at-performance-testing-with-intersection-observer/Basic runtime performance testing for an app that used multiple, possibly-very-long-formsMon, 29 Jun 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/on-being-wrong/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/on-being-wrong/Sat, 09 May 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/running-ie11-on-virtualbox-on-mac/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/running-ie11-on-virtualbox-on-mac/Wed, 06 May 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/cross-browser-testing-ie11-edge-for-free/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/cross-browser-testing-ie11-edge-for-free/Looking for cheap options to support a crappy browser in a pay-to-play worldTue, 28 Apr 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/what-is-helpful-if-you-want-to-help/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/what-is-helpful-if-you-want-to-help/So you want to help? How?Sun, 08 Mar 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/removing-accidentally-committed-files-from-remote-history/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/removing-accidentally-committed-files-from-remote-history/Oops, I did it again -_-Wed, 19 Feb 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/how-to-plan-scalable-css-for-large-projects/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/how-to-plan-scalable-css-for-large-projects/The options, oh the options!Mon, 10 Feb 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/first-impressions-learning-angular-after-react-redux/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/first-impressions-learning-angular-after-react-redux/Another this-vs-that post from a dev who got comfortable with React D:Tue, 17 Dec 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/how-i-approach-whiteboarding/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/how-i-approach-whiteboarding/From Imposter to CandidateSat, 30 Nov 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/a-laundry-list-of-things-i-never-heard-from-bootcamp/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/a-laundry-list-of-things-i-never-heard-from-bootcamp/Because it's just impossible to fit the dev ecosystem into a 10 week crash courseThu, 02 May 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/watching-the-future-of-code-accelerate-into-a-black-hole/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/watching-the-future-of-code-accelerate-into-a-black-hole/The race to the bottom is here and I'm scavenging.Sat, 09 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/what-i-learned-from-trying-to-be-a-team-player-for-2-years/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/what-i-learned-from-trying-to-be-a-team-player-for-2-years/Taking stock of being a millennial with a second career and two terminations in two yearsTue, 26 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/hastily-deploying-a-node-app-on-nearlyfreespeechnet/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/hastily-deploying-a-node-app-on-nearlyfreespeechnet/Hack job on deploying a Node appWed, 17 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/what-i-learned-from-only-using-select-in-psql/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/what-i-learned-from-only-using-select-in-psql/A month in queriesMon, 09 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/what-i-learned-from-not-planning-a-web-app-from-start-to-finish/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/what-i-learned-from-not-planning-a-web-app-from-start-to-finish/Tue, 12 Dec 2017 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/nofail-workflow-mongo/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/nofail-workflow-mongo/Tue, 17 Oct 2017 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/adapting-greensock-svgs-for-firefox/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/adapting-greensock-svgs-for-firefox/Some things I discovered whilst debugging an ad banner for a code test.Wed, 06 Sep 2017 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/last-day-on-termination-notice/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/last-day-on-termination-notice/Mon, 14 Aug 2017 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/junior-dev-interview-questions/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/junior-dev-interview-questions/Tue, 08 Aug 2017 00:00:00 GMThttps://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/fixing-emails-for-outlook-2007-2013-2016/https://mirror.jenchan.biz/blog/fixing-emails-for-outlook-2007-2013-2016/Writing Markup Like it's 1996.Sat, 17 Jun 2017 00:00:00 GMT